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India must better protect tribal peoples and disadvantaged castes subjected to extrajudicial killings, torture and violence by law enforcement, a United Nations watchdog said on Tuesday.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) said the world’s most populous country also urgently needed to address hate crimes against Bengali-speaking Muslims.
“The committee was gravely concerned about reports of large-scale violations perpetrated by law enforcement officials against ethnic and ethno-religious groups, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, including Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, particularly Dalits, and non-citizens,” it said in a statement on its findings.
“These included racially motivated violence, excessive use of force, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary and prolonged detention without due process, torture, ill-treatment and sexual violence.”
