Amnesty International has been forced to shut down its operation in India and lay off all of its staff after the government took the extraordinary step of freezing the human-rights group’s bank accounts. The move came after the group published reports criticizing the government’s record on human rights, and accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of detaining his political enemies. Amnesty said the Modi government had harassed their staff for years as part of an “incessant witch-hunt” of human-rights groups in the country. Avinash Kumar, the executive director of Amnesty International India, said Modi was trying to “stoke a climate of fear and dismantle the critical voices in India.” Kumar added: “It reeks of fear and repression, ignores the human cost to this crackdown, particularly during a pandemic, and violates people’s basic rights.”
