Expert panel seeks urgent action over rights violations against Muslims in India
New Delhi : International crimes and serious human rights violations against Muslims in BJP-ruled Indian states require urgent action, a panel of former international war crimes prosecutors has warned.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Ambassador Stephen J. Rapp, former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, said in a report published May 4 that violence and discrimination against Muslims in India has worsened since 2019. Rapp co-authored the report with fellow human rights lawyers Marzuki Darusman and Sonja Biserko, focusing on Assam and Uttar Pradesh.
The panel found credible evidence of crimes against humanity, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, torture, forced evictions, and “push-back” expulsions of Bengali-speaking Muslims from Assam into Bangladesh.
It said Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s public statements portraying Muslims as “infiltrators” raised the risk of genocide. In Uttar Pradesh, the report cited “encounter killings” and “Operation Langla” — police shootings that maim victims — as possible torture as a crime against humanity. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was named for anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies. The panel said domestic institutions, including courts and India’s National Human Rights Commission, have failed to provide redress.
It urged independent investigations, prosecutions, and reparations. For international action, it called on the UN Human Rights Council to mandate a fact-finding body, the ICC Prosecutor to open a preliminary examination into deportations to Bangladesh, and foreign governments to impose targeted sanctions on identified perpetrators.
“History teaches that descent into mass violence begins with narratives,” Rapp wrote, warning that unchecked measures in Assam and Uttar Pradesh could escalate into systematic violence.
