Three global rights groups have urged the Indian govern-ment to stop targeting rights acti-vists by abusing counterterrori-sm and financial laws and called on a major terror financing and money laundering watchdog to intervene.
The Indian government is “weaponizing” the laws to detain and punish rights activists, Hu-man Rights Watch (HRW), Am-nesty International, and the Cha-rity & Security Network said in a joint statement on Nov. 3.
The counterterrorism law has been used to level “unfounded charges” against activists, said Aakar Patel from Amnesty Inter-national India.
“Authorities are using bogus foreign funding and terrorism charges to target, intimidate, harass, and silence critics, in clear violation of Financial Action Task Force [FATF] standards,” Patel added.
The FATF, which India joined in 2010, is a 40-member country body mandated to tackle money laundering, terror finan-cing, and other threats to the inte-grity of the global financial sys-tem.
The rights groups’ statement came just days before the FATF’s fourth periodic review of India’s record on tackling illicit funding on Nov. 6.
Bandel Basilica Inspires Religious Harmony Across Faiths
The Basilica of the Holy Rosary, popularly known as Bandel Church in West Bengal, continues to attract thousands of pilgrims from different faiths, standing as
