"Amnesty to halt work in India due to government 'witch-hunt'", 29 September 2020

Amnesty International has been forced to halt its work in India and lay off staff after the government froze its bank accounts across the country.

The Indian enforcement directorate, an agency that investigates economic crimes, froze the accounts of Amnesty’s Indian arm this month after the group published two reports highly critical of the government’s human rights record.

Amnesty said it was the culmination of a two-year campaign of harassment by the home affairs ministry, and more broadly part of an “incessant witch-hunt” of human rights groups by the government of India under Narendra Modi, the prime minister.

Amnesty has published two reports critical of Indian authorities in recent months: one of rights violations by police during communal riots in Delhi, and another condemning restrictions on civil liberties in Jammu and Kashmir a year after New Delhi revoked the region’s political autonomy.

...The enforcement directorate has not commented publicly on Amnesty’s statement. The Guardian has approached the government for comment.

Amnesty said it had been targeted with raids by police and threats of baseless prosecutions. It had been forced to halt all of its work and lay off its 140 Indian staff...