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07-10-2022
Bureau Report + Agencies
LONDON/ NEW DELHI: Human rights group Amnesty International has condemned the flogging of Muslim men by Indian police in the state of Gujarat and called it a “serious human rights violation” showing “utter disrespect towards the law”.
The public flogging has sparked outage with some calling Gujarat an “ugly state to live in”.
Nine Muslim men were publicly flogged by policemen, wearing civilian clothes, over allegations of throwing stones in an ongoing Hindu religious event Garba, which is a collective dance for the Hindu goddess Durga.
A video of the incident was recorded in Udhela Village, local media reported, which went viral on social media. In the clip, men were seen tied to a pole and flogged as the crowd including women and children cheered.
The viral clips were mostly taken down from Twitter for being graphic.
The police reported to the local Indian media that at least six people were wounded by the alleged stone pelting that the Muslim men did. However, they were not taken to court and were brought to the village instead.
“A group of Muslim youth tried to disrupt the celebration at the village. The Muslim youth had an objection to organizing this celebration near a mosque,” Deputy Superintendent of Police V R Bajpai told reporters.
Amnesty said in a tweet that the Gujarat police had committed a serious human rights violation.
“We remind the Gujarat Police that punishment is never a legitimate objective for a law enforcement action, even if using less lethal weapons. In this case, it blatantly ignored the guiding principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, and accountability.”
Amnesty said that a new state government which will be elected in December this year “has a chance to break this cycle of widespread and unchecked impunity and bring to justice those responsible for this unlawful and excessive use of force.”
Meanwhile, at least 19 people are confirmed dead after an avalanche struck climbers in the Indian Himalayas, authorities said Friday, with bad weather hampering the fourth day of search and rescue efforts.
A group of climbing trainees and instructors were caught in Tuesday’s massive snow slide near the summit of Mount Draupadi ka Danda II in the northern state of Uttarakhand.
“Nineteen bodies have been recovered. 10 people are still missing,” state disaster agency spokesperson Ridhim Aggarwal told media.
“Rescue operations have resumed for the day but are subject to weather,” she added. “The weather is bad.”
Police, disaster authorities and the Indian air force have been mobilized to help with search efforts, with 32 people successfully rescued from the mountain despite snow and rainfall.
An advance helicopter landing ground had been prepared near the site of the avalanche at 4,900 metres (16,000 feet) above sea level, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police said Thursday.
Sunil Lalwani, one of the rescued trainee climbers, credited the instructors for saving many lives.
“We were 50-100 metres from the summit with our instructors ahead of us, when suddenly an avalanche hit us and 
took everyone down,” Lalwani was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times on Thursday.
“It happened in a matter of seconds and we were dumped in a crevasse. We were somehow able to breathe… It’s because of them that we are alive today.”
Among the bodies recovered earlier in the week was that of climber Savita Kanswal, who had summited Everest this year.
Kanswal was an instructor with the expedition and had been feted by the climbing community for summiting the world’s highest peak and nearby Makalu in just 16 days, a women’s record.
Fatal accidents common
Fatal climbing accidents are common in the Himalayas, home to Everest and several of the world’s highest peaks.
In August, the body of a mountaineer was recovered two months after he fell into a crevasse while crossing a glacier in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.
Last week, renowned US ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson’s body was found on the slopes of Nepal’s Manaslu peak after she went missing skiing down the world’s eighth-highest mountain.
The same day, Nepali climber Anup Rai was killed and a dozen others were injured after an avalanche on the 8,163-metre (26,781-foot) mountain.
Although no substantial research has been done on the impacts of climate change on mountaineering risks in the Himalayas, climbers have reported crevasses widening, running water on previously snowy slopes, and the increasing formation of glacial lakes.
