There continued to be significant human rights abuses, despite extensive constitutional and statutory safeguards. Many of these abuses are generated by intense social tensions, violent secessionist movements and the authorities' attempts to repress them, and deficient police methods and training. These problems are acute in Jammu and Kashmir, where judicial tolerance of the Government's heavy-handed anti-militant tactics, the refusal of security forces to obey court orders, and terrorist threats have disrupted the judicial system. Separatist insurgent violence in the northeastern states continued, along with reported incidents of security force abuses.
Serious human rights abuses include: Extrajudicial executions and other political killings and excessive use of force by security forces combating active insurgencies in Jammu and Kashmir and several north eastern states; torture and rape by police and other agents of the Government, and deaths of suspects in police custody throughout the country; poor prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast; continued detention throughout the country of thousands arrested under special security legislation; lengthy pretrial detention; prolonged detention while undergoing trial; occasional limits on freedom of the press and freedom of movement; legal and societal discrimination against women; extensive societal violence against women; female bondage and prostitution; trafficking in women; child prostitution, trafficking and infanticide; discrimination and violence against indigenous people and scheduled castes and tribes; widespread intercaste and communal violence; increasing societal violence against Christians; and widespread exploitation of indentured, bonded and child labour.
During 1998 India made further progress in resolving human rights problems. In Punjab the serious abuses of the early 1990's were acknowledged and condemned by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court delegated responsibility for investigation of these abuses in the Punjab to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), whose investigation continues. Continuing International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) prison visits in Jammu and Kashmir demonstrated some government transparency on human rights problems. However, researchers for international human rights organization like Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights watch (HRW) were not permitted to visit Jammu and Kashmir or the northeast; local non-governmental organizations were permitted access to these areas. The NHRC continued to play an important role in investigating and redressing human rights anuses.
The number of insurgency-related deaths in J&K and the northeast was slightly lower than the previous year, due in part to negotiated cease-fires in the northeast between the Government and insurgent forces and between some tribal groups. However, the proportion of civilian deaths in J&K increased markedly due to a concerted campaign of brutal, execution-style killings of civilians by Kashmiri militant groups. Separatist militants were responsible for numerous, serious abuses, including extrajudicial executions and other political killings, torture and brutality. Separatist militants also were responsible for kidnapping and extortion in J&K and northeast India.
Freedom of Religion
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government respects this right in practice. India is a secular state in which all faiths generally enjoy freedom of worship. Government policy does not favour any religious group. There is no national law to bar proselytizing by Indian Christians. Foreign missionaries generally can renew their visas, but since the mid-1960's the Government has refused to admit new resident foreign missionaries. Those who arrive now do so as tourists and stay for short periods. As of January 1993, there were 1923 registered foreign Christian missionaries. As in the past, state officials refused to issue permits for foreign Christian missionaries to enter some northeastern states. Tension between Hindus and Muslims continues to pose a challenge to the secular foundation of the state.
During the year, there was a sharp increase in attacks against Christian communities and Christian missionaries. According to Indian human rights organizations, there were over 90 incidents, primarily of mob violence that took the form of the destruction of churches and religious property and violent attacks on Christian pilgrims and leaders. The National Minorities Commission initiated investigations into many of these cases.
On occasion, Hindu-Muslim violence led to killings and a cycle of retaliation. For example, on November 30, 1997, police in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, incensed over the killing of a colleague by Muslim youth, joined forces with armed Hindu rioters; 18 Muslims were killed in clashes with police. The People's Union for Civil Liberties, a prominent human rights organization, reported that police took advantage of the civil unrest to wreak vengeance on Muslim traders who had stopped paying them bribes. Houses and shops owned by Muslims were looted and set ablaze in full view of police; police and Hindu rioters hacked to death riot victims at the government hospital. In February Muslim militants retaliated for this incident with a series of bombings in Coimbatore.
The UN Special Rapporteur for All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief published a report in February 1997 on his visit of December 2-14, 1996, at the invitation of the Government. Having studied the situation of the majority Hindus and minority Muslims, Christians, and Sikhs, the Rapporteur concluded that the country's constitutional and legislative protections of religious freedom contributed to religious tolerance in India, as did "a conception of secularism implying not the rejection of religion but equality for all religions." He warned, however, that tolerance was susceptible to attack by religious extremists.
In July Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee told Parliament that he opposed a proposal by the Delhi Union Capital Government to remove Churches from a list of tax-exempt religious places because sacramental win is served there. Vajpayee stated that the proposal was wrong and said that the Government was committed to preserving full religious freedom. The proposal subsequently was dropped.
In October the Union Human Resource Development Minister floated a plan to "Indianize and spiritualize" public school curriculums at all levels and to make the study of Sanskrit compulsory from grade 3 through grade 10. The plan also contemplated the teaching of Hindu texts from the Vedas and Upanishads in secondary school. The plan was withdrawn after protests from educators, most of the country's state Education Ministers, and many members of the public.
Freedom of Movement within the Country
Since 1990, 235,000 Bangladeshis have been deported from India, many from Maharashtra and West Bengal. In July, the government of Maharashtra initiated a program of rounding up and deporting to Bangladesh suspected Bangladeshi illegal immigrants. According to press reports, on July 1 police in Mumbai began a systematic campaign to remove suspected illegal Bangladeshis. Reports indicated that Bengali-speaking Muslims were rounded up for deportation, and that when some suspected illegals provided documentation of Indian citizenship, police declared them forgeries and tore up the documents. Manish . Gupta, Chief Secretary of the Government of West Bengal, admitted that at least 50 Indian citizens had been deported to Bangladesh in the last year. On July 24, as a train carrying deportees from Mumbai passed through West Bengal on the way to Bangladesh, it was forced to halt by a large crowd that blocked the tracks and stormed the train. Mumbai police were assaulted and 34 deportees were set free. These events led the Maharashtra government to reassess its deportation policy, and subsequently to announce the suspension of new deportations until October. The Government estimates that there are 10 million Bangladeshis living illegally in the country ....
Religious Minorities
Controversy between Hindus and Muslims continues with regard to three sites where mosques were built centuries ago on sites where temples are believed to have stood previously. The potential for renewed Hindu-Muslim violence remains considerable. In February the Sri Krishna Commission, set up by the Government to inquire into the cause of Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai in December 1992 and January,1993, released its report. The riots, which followed the destruction of an historic mosque in Ayodhya in December 1992, left more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead. Maharashtra's BJP-Shiv Sena ruling coalition rejected the report, which laid responsibility for much of the violence on leaders of both of those parties. Several Muslim organizations have requested that the Supreme Court reverse the Maharashtra government's rejection of the report.
On June 5,Hindu-Muslim clashes occurred in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, following the distribution of leaflets that "hurt religious sentiment", according to the press. More than 30 persons were injured in the violence.
In western India, Hindu extremists set fire to Muslim shops and forced Muslims to flee their homes in retaliation for the intermarriage of Muslim men and Hindu women, and the alleged forced conversion of Hindu women to Islam.
Fear of political violence drove most Hindus in the Kashmir Valley (Pandits) to seek refuge in camps in Jammu or with relatives in New Delhi or elsewhere. The Pandit community criticizes bleak conditions in the camps and fears that a negotiated solution giving greater autonomy to the Muslim majority might threaten its own survival in J&K as a culturally and historically distinctive group.
Throughout the year, separatist militants in J&K targeted members of the state's remaining Hindu community with violence. In his report on his 1996 visit, the UN Special Rapporteur for All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief cited the "traumatic situations" in J&K and Punjab, as well as inter-communal rioting in Mumbai and incidents of religious extremism. The Special Rapporteur warned that the country's tradition of religious tolerance is susceptible to attack by religious extremists.
There were several attacks by violent Hindu extremists on Christian communities and Christian missionaries during the year ... At year's end, a wave of apparently organized attacks against Christians began ... On December 4, Christians staged a nationwide protest against the recent wave of attacks. In New Delhi, six thousand protestors marched on Parliament and demanded that the Government intervene with Hindu groups that are allegedly behind the attacks ...
