Amnesty International suspends operations in India, Modi government freezes bank accounts

- Amnesty International is an international human rights organization

New Delhi, 29 September 2020 Tuesday

Amnesty International, an international human rights organization, has suspended its operations in India. Amnesty alleges that the Indian government froze our bank accounts on September 10, forcing us to lay off some of our employees.

Amnesty also accused the Indian government of carrying out unscheduled and premeditated operations. "We have been under investigation for the last two years," said Avinash Kumar, Amnesty's executive director. Nothing happened overnight as our bank accounts were frozen. Government departments were constantly harassing us. The government took action against us in the wake of the Delhi violence in February this year and the voices we raised about Jammu and Kashmir.

Avinash Kumar claimed that we are abiding by all Indian and international law. The organization working for human rights in India is governed by a different model at the local as well as international level. Over four million Indians have applauded our work in the last eight years. About one million Indians helped financially for our work. However Amnesty immediately added that the donations we received had nothing to do with the Foreign Donations (Control) Act 2010. The Indian government was calling it a case of money laundering. This fact proves how much malice the Government of India has for activists and organizations fighting for human rights.