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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 16 June 2022
Thousands protest ‘bulldozer justice’ against Indian Muslims

By BISWAJEET BANERJEE governing party spokes-
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — people died of gunshot in-
Protests have been erupt- juries in clashes with police
ing in many Indian cities to on Friday in Ranchi, the
condemn the demolition of capital of Jharkhand state.
homes and businesses be- Several Muslim-majority
longing to Muslims, in what countries have also criti-
critics call a growing pat- cized the remarks, and
tern of “bulldozer justice” protesters in Bangladesh
aimed at punishing activists called for a boycott of In-
from the minority group. dian products, leaving In-
On Sunday, authorities in dia’s government scram-
the northern state of Uttar bling to contain the diplo-
Pradesh rode on a bulldoz- matic backlash.
er to raze the home of Ja- Violence has been in-
ved Ahmad, who they said creasing against Muslims
was connected to Mus- by Hindu nationalists em-
lim religious protests that boldened by Modi’s regu-
turned violent last Friday. lar silence on such attacks
Police arrested Ahmad on since he was elected prime
Saturday. minister in 2014.
The protests were sparked Muslims have been target-
by derogatory remarks ed for their food or cloth-
about Islam and the Proph- Authorities demolish the residence of activist Javed Ahmad they say has been constructed ing, or over inter-religious
illegally in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, June 12, 2022.
et Muhammed made re- Associated Press marriages. The rights groups
cently by two spokespeo- Amnesty International and
ple of Prime Minister Naren- in two other cities in Uttar tutional norms and ethics,” justice urging him to hold a Human Rights Watch have
dra Modi’s Hindu national- Pradesh last week. In April, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a hearing on the demolitions, accused Modi’s party of
ist Bharatiya Janata Party. authorities in New Delhi specialist on Hindu nation- calling them illegal and “a looking the other way and
The party suspended one used bulldozers to destroy alist politics and biographer form of collective extraju- sometimes enabling hate
of them and expelled the Muslim-owned shops days of Modi, told The Associat- dicial punishment.” They speech against Muslims,
other, issuing a rare state- after communal violence in ed Press on Wednesday. accused the Uttar Pradesh who comprise 14% of In-
ment saying it “strongly de- which dozens were arrest- On Tuesday, 12 prominent government of suppressing dia’s 1.4 billion people,
nounces insults of any reli- ed. Similar incidents have people, including former dissent by using violence but are the second-largest
gious personalities.” been reported in other Supreme Court and High against protesters. Muslim population of any
Bulldozers also crushed the states. “The demolitions are Court judges and lawyers, Two people who were pro- nation. Modi’s party denies
properties of protesters a gross violation of consti- sent a letter to India’s chief testing the remarks by the the accusations.q

Strategist: Last Australian government lost Chinese votes

Party. wanted Labor to win the the coalition’s reelection
Labor’s campaign director election because Labor chances.
Paul Erickson on Wednes- lawmakers were less likely Labor described the pact
day blamed coalition rhet- to stand up for Australian as Australia’s worst foreign
oric on China for significant interests against Chinese policy failure in the Pacific
vote swings toward Labor economic coercion. since World War II.
in electorates with large A conservative lobby group New Foreign Minister Penny
Chinese-Australian popula- Advance Australia had dis- Wong will fly to the Solo-
tions. played ads on the sides of mons on Friday in an at-
“The feedback that we got trucks during the election tempt to improve bilateral
was that there was a view campaign that depicted ties.
that the government’s re- Chinese President Xi Jin- Former Defense Minister
sponse to the more aggres- ping casting a vote with Peter Dutton, who since
sive and assertive behavior the slogan: “CCP says vote the election has replaced
of the Chinese Communist Labor.” Morrison as leader of the
A truck sponsored by conservative lobby group Advance Party and the government Morrison had labeled La- conservative Liberal Party,
Australia displaying an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing came across in bor’s deputy leader Rich- argued during the cam-
casting a vote for the Australian opposition Labor Party drives the community actually at ard Marles “the Manchu- paign that pro-Labor com-
down a local street, Saturday, April 9, 2022, in the Parramatta
area of Sydney. times as an attack on Chi- rian candidate,” the title of munication on the Chinese
Associated Press nese-Australians or rhetoric a 1959 novel about the son social media platform We-
that licensed racism in the of a prominent U.S. political Chat was evidence that
By ROD McGUIRK tration’s language had community,” Erickson told family who is brainwashed Beijing wanted the govern-
Associated Press licensed racism, a cam- the National Press Club. by Chinese authorities to ment to change.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) paign strategist said on Of Australia’s population of become an unwitting as- Maree Ma, general man-
— The previous Austra- Wednesday. 25 million, 1.2 million have sassin. ager of Vision Times, a lead-
lian government’s stance Former Prime Minister Scott Chinese ancestry, accord- Senior ministers also had ing Chinese-language Aus-
against a more aggressive Morrison’s conservative ing to the most recent cen- pointed to China and tralian media outlet, said
China drove away many coalition government lost sus. the Solomon Islands an- WeChat exchanges were
Chinese-Australian voters elections last month after Senior figures in the co- nouncing a security pact more positive toward Labor
at recent elections who almost a decade in pow- alition government had during the campaign as than they had been in the
considered the adminis- er to the center-left Labor argued that Beijing had an attempt to undermine last election in 2019.q