{"id":2822,"date":"2019-01-10T10:40:58","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T10:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nehadixit.in\/?p=2822"},"modified":"2023-11-09T09:05:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T09:05:59","slug":"gun-law-the-unstoppable-rise-of-indian-police-encounter-shootings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nehadixit.in\/gun-law-the-unstoppable-rise-of-indian-police-encounter-shootings\/","title":{"rendered":"Gun Law: The Unstoppable Rise Of Indian Police Encounter Shootings"},"content":{"rendered":"
Against a backdrop of aggressive Hindu nationalism, a growing number of lower-caste and Muslim men are dying in alleged officer-involved gunfights across the state of Uttar Pradesh<\/i><\/strong> Aged 35, he had spent three years in the nearby Saharanpur jail awaiting trial for robbery. It was said that, while incarcerated, he was electrocuted several times by police. By the time he was released, still with no verdict reached, he had lost his mind. Locals called him Mansoor the Madman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At around noon on September 28, 2017, three people came in a car and took Mansoor away. The next morning, the media reported that he had been killed in an exchange of gunfire with police in the neighbouring town of Meerut. Officers claimed that they recovered a German revolver from the scene and said that Mansoor was wanted for more than 25 crimes, which had over the years netted him a total in excess of 3.5 million rupees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Akbar, a softly-spoken man of 65, is Mansoor\u2019s father. Sitting under the damaged straw roof of his house with a neighbour, he told me: \u201cHe was shot point blank in the chest. How come the shot was so exact when 20 bullets were supposed to have been fired? If he had stolen so much money, would he have been living here and begging for two meals a day?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Mansoor\u2019s death certainly raises questions. In recent years, India has experienced an epidemic of extrajudicial police killings. They typically involve purported shoot-outs with \u201cundertrials\u201d \u2013 men who, like Mansoor, were out on bail or awaiting legal proceedings \u2013 who just happen to be Muslim or Dalit. They are referred to by the authorities and the media euphemistically as \u201cencounters\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Uttar Pradesh is India\u2019s most populous state. There, the portrayal of Muslims as dangerous criminals has become an important electoral strategy of Prime Minister\u00a0Narendra Modi<\/a>\u2019s Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). Politicians make frequent references to the danger the Muslim community poses to Hindus, ramping up tensions in order to secure votes. Anyone seen to be taking decisive action against this supposed threat is likely to win considerable public approval.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The state’s chief minister is a monk named Yogi Adityanath. A representative of the BJP, he was appointed in February 2017. Before then, he was known as the man behind the Hindu Yuva Vahini \u2013 a youth organisation repeatedly accused of provoking and participating in religious violence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Mr Adityanath is known for his anti-Muslim statements. He once said: \u201cIf one Hindu girl marries a Muslim man, then we will take 100 Muslim girls in return \u2026 If they kill one Hindu man, then we will kill 100 Muslim men.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He has accused Muslims of engaging in \u201clove jihad\u201d, an orchestrated plot to seduce Hindu women and convert them, likened the movie star Shah Rukh Khan to a terrorist and claimed that Mother Teresa wanted to Christianise India. He also recently called for a travel ban on Muslims to the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n<\/i>Neha Dixit<\/i>
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\n<\/i><\/i>A week before his death, Mansoor had started sleeping under the sacred fig tree that stands on the public square in Pathanpura, a village in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Dressed in tattered clothes, he lived off food given to him and sat there muttering to himself all day.<\/p>\n