Amnesty For Now Shuts Offices, Congress Slams Its Karnataka Government

Bengaluru: Amnesty International, accused in a police complaint of sedition in Karnataka, has temporarily closed its offices in Chennai, Pune , Delhi and Bengaluru after protests by hundreds of young right-wing activists.

The human-rights organization held an event to discuss the crisis in Kashmir on the weekend. Anti-India slogans were heard at the event. Amnesty says its members did not make these statements, but the group has been accused of sedition by the ABVP, a student group associated with the BJP, which does not govern Karnataka.

The Congress government in the state, headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, has said that "things are not clear" about what transpired at the event, where shouts for "azadi" or freedom for Kashmir were heard. Senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily has criticized the state government, stating "I talked to the Home minister of Karnataka. I told him, how it can happen? You know the sedition charge should be filed for conspiring and waging war against the nation and in fact it cannot be just invoked against mere sloganeering." Another Congress veteran, Digvijaya Singh, said "Simply raising slogans is not a fit case to be charged with sedition. It is a law which British used against our Leaders in Freedom Movement."

In February, when student Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on charges of sedition in Delhi, the Congress had attacked the central government for crushing dissent.

Amnesty's discussion on Kashmir was held at a time when the worst unrest in six years has left over 60 people dead and thousands injured in the Kashmir Valley. The region has been under curfew for over a month since 22-year-old Burhan Wani, a terrorist with a large following, was killed by security forces. Daily clashes have taken place between civilians, many of them stone-throwing young men, and security troops.