NHRC should apologise, withdraw report on Kairana: Activists

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) should apologise and withdraw its report on Kairana that is based on communally charged assumptions, activists have said.

"We are deeply dismayed as this report clearly communalises crime and criminals. One community cannot be the reason behind the law and order problems anywhere," minority rights activist, Farah Naqvi told media here on Thursday.

"The report says that the Muslims, who had survived the Muzaffarnagar riots and settled in Kairana, are creating law and order problems in the town. It makes prejudiced and communally charged assumptions," she said.

"NHRC should apologise the riot victims for having stigmatized their entire community and should withdraw this report," she added.

Social worker Harsh Mander also challenged the report saying, "NHRC's report makes a stereotyped declaration. Is this what we expect from the highest statutory body in the country?"

Noting that criminality in any area causes people to migrate, he said: "It is the state government's job to act and accommodate the migrants. Criminality does not have a religion or a community."

Naqvi said that it is a matter of grave concern that "our premier human rights body in a public document spoke so loosely and irresponsibly, based only on what unnamed witnesses said they feel and stigmatize an entire community of Indian citizens as criminals."

Social worker Akram Chaudhary from Shamli demanded factual evidence of NHRC's figure of 25,000-30,000 migrants having settled in Kairana town post riots, saying: "According to the survey that we conducted in Kairana, 270 muslim families from (approximately 2,000 people) survived the riots in

muzaffarnagar and settled in the town."

"We ask why the NHRC is directly feeding false notions of 'Hindu community honour being under threat, which has been used as the pretext for numerous previous incidents of communal violence, including most recently in Bijnor," she stated.

Naqvi sought for justification on the issue.

"Why has it chosen to closely study a list of 346 families supplied by a political party with a clear stake in communalising the atmosphere ahead of the UP polls?" she questioned.

--IANS

mg/sku/