Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, international non-governmental organisation working in the area of human rights. In 1987, several Commonwealth professional associations founded CHRI, since there was little focus on human rights within the association of 53 nations although the Commonwealth provided member countries the basis of shared common laws. Through its reports and periodic investigations, CHRI continually draws attention to the progress and setbacks to human rights in Commonwealth countries. In advocating for approaches and measures to prevent human rights abuses, CHRI addresses the Commonwealth Secretariat, the United Nations Human Rights Council members, the media and civil society. It works on and collaborates around public education programmes, policy dialogues, comparative research, advocacy and networking on the issues of Access to Information and Access to Justice. CHRI’s seeks to promote adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Commonwealth Harare Principles and other internationally recognised human rights instruments, as well as domestic instruments supporting human rights in the Commonwealth. CHRI is headquartered in New Delhi, India, with offices in London, UK and Accra, Ghana. International Advisory Commission: Yashpal Ghai, Chairperson. Members: Alison Duxbury, Wajahat Habibullah, Vivek Maru, Edward Mortimer, Sam Okudzeto and Sanjoy Hazarika. Executive Committee (India): Wajahat Habibullah, Chairperson. Members: B. K. Chandrashekar, Jayanto Choudhury, Maja Daruwala, Nitin Desai, Kamal Kumar, Poonam Muttreja, Jacob Punnoose, Vineeta Rai, Nidhi Razdan, A P Shah, and Sanjoy Hazarika. Executive Committee (Ghana): Sam Okudzeto, Chairperson. Members: Akoto Ampaw, Yashpal Ghai, Wajahat Habibullah, Kofi Quashigah, Juliette Tuakli and Sanjoy Hazarika. Executive Committee (UK): Joanna Ewart-James, Chairperson. Members: Richard Bourne, Pralab Barua, Tony Foreman, Neville Linton, Suzanne Lambert and Sanjoy Hazarika. Sanjoy Hazarika, International Director ISBN: 978-93-81241-52-3 ©Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, 2018. Material from this report may be used, duly acknowledging the source. CHRI Headquarters, New Delhi CHRI London CHRI Africa, Accra 55A, Third Floor Room No. 219 House No.9, Samora Machel Street Siddharth Chambers School of Advanced Study Asylum Down, Opposite Beverly Kalu Sarai, New Delhi 110 017 South Block, Senate House Hills Hotel Near Trust Towers, India Malet Street, London WC1E Accra, Ghana Tel: +91 11 4318 0200 7HU, United Kingdom Tel/Fax: +233 302 971170 Fax: +91 11 2686 4688 E-mail: Email: E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.humanrightsinitiative.org Quill Foundation Quill Foundation is an autonomous institution engaging in research and advocacy in India. Quill’s work revolves around pertinent issues of human rights, justice and equity faced by the marginalized of India, especially Muslims, Adivasis, Dalits, women, sexual minorities and differently-abled persons. The Delhi based Law and Human Rights Cell (LHRC) of Quill Foundation seeks to examine the many ways in which legal and judicial processes form the basis for everyday injustices, and reflect how the interface between law and the social world, perceives citizens differently in terms of access to rights and justice, especially in the cases of counter-terrorism prosecution, extrajudicial killings, torture, policing, and the de-legitimization of citizenship in India. LHRC undertakes sustained documentation, intervention and advocacy from a human rights approach and engages with rights institution in India and abroad: especially the United Nations and the national human rights institutions. With a firm belief in a just and egalitarian world, Quill Foundation’s intervention is oriented towards change both, on the ground as well as at the level of policy. Quill Foundation Team: Suhail KK, Director, Sharib A. Ali, Programs Director, Law and Human Rights Cell, Vipul Kumar, Project Coordinator (Citizens Against Hate), Fawaz Shaheen, Project Coordinator (Hate crimes & Policing), Baljeet Kaur, Project Coordinator (Counter-terrorism & Human Rights), Faraz Akhtar, Research Officer, Prachi Lohia, Advocacy Officer, Adv Mangla Verma, Legal Consultant. © Copyright 2018 Quill Foundation. Material from this report may be used, duly acknowledging the source. For more information on Quill Foundation, visit: www.quillfoundation.com Quill Foundation, New Delhi F-13, 3rd Floor, Jungpura Extension, New Delhi 110014 www.humanrightsinitiative.org Muslim Voices: Perceptions of Policing in India Research and Writing Team Devika Prasad, Aditi Datta, Ankur Otto and Fawaz Shaheen Edited by Sanjoy Hazarika, Devika Prasad and Sharib Ali This report has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The European Union is made up of 28 Member States who have decided to gradually link together their know-how, resources and destinies. Together, during a period of enlargement of 50 years, they have built a zone of stability, democracy and sustainable development whilst maintaining cultural diversity, tolerance and individual freedoms. The European Union is committed to sharing its achievements and its values with countries and peoples beyond its borders. Table of Contents Acknowledgements viii Executive Summary ix Introduction 1 Community Perceptions of Policing 10 Muslim Police Officers: Perceptions, Experiences and Challenges 25 Conclusion and Recommendations 37 Annexure 1: Questions for Retired Muslim Police Officers 43 Annexure 2 : Exoneree Testimonies 46 Acknowledgements This study and report come out of a joint effort of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Quill Foundation. We sincerely thank all the colleagues, friends, civil society partners, and retired police officers who supported the research, and helped to put us in touch with Muslim community organisations and retired police across states. We gratefully acknowledge the presence and contribution of every individual participant in the focus group discussions, who participated so openly and meaningfully. In the same way, we express our sincere thanks to all the retired Muslim police officers and members of civil society organisations whom we met and interviewed separately. These are the bedrock on which this report was made possible. Several civil society organisations extended the invaluable help of facilitating FGDs for us. We express special thanks to the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, Solidarity Youth Movement, Association for Advocacy and Legal Initiatives, Alternative Law Forurm, Movement for Justice, Vimochana, Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy and Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan. In Guwahati, we are grateful to Studio Nilima for providing their premises for the group discussions. CHRI expresses gratitude to Faisal Khan of Khudai Khidmitgar who organized meetings and discussions in the initial phase of the research enabling us to get our first understanding of ground realities, and to Tahmina Laskar who led the study’s direction in the first phase. This research and study could be done through the generous support of the European Union. viii MUSLIM VOICES: PERCEPTIONS OF POLICING IN INDIA Executive Summary This report documents the perceptions and experiences of policing in India of Muslim citizens. It is a result of a study conducted by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Quill Foundation. The study, spread across eight cities and several geographies1, focuses on issues related to everyday policing- access, engagement, and discrimination - as perceived by common Muslim citizens, along with a special focus on the experience of Muslim police officers themselves. Muslim community perceptions of policing The findings of the study present a picture of policing of Muslims characterized by discrimination, various degrees of harassment, as well as coercive containments of Muslim neighborhoods and activities. One set of the study’s respondents - 197 Muslim citizens - convey a pervasive sense of actively practiced discrimination, victimization, and coercive targeting by the police based on their distinct identity as Muslims. They feel they are, both individually and in groups, under constant suspicion of supporting ‘anti-national’ activities, surveilled and subject to higher levels of intrusive policing; and that the police makes deliberate efforts to limit and prevent community mobilization. The key findings are: • Police target and victimize Muslims based on their identity, revealing a distinct bias The respondents unanimously expressed that the police targets and victimizes Muslims, resulting in ‘kafkaesque’ feelings within the Muslim community- cycles of fear, intimidation, and the constant threat of being detained, abused, and possibly incarcerated. • Muslim women feel a double burden amplifying a multi-layered bias Across states, Muslim women expressed the difficulty of bearing the ‘double burden’ of being a Muslim and a woman. Women distinctly felt their identity as Muslims was a primary reason for both police indifference and bias towards them. They unanimously said that police attitude and behavior is sharply prejudiced when women access the police wearing Muslim identity markers like burqa/hijab. • Display of Hindu religious practices and symbols in police stations are perceived with apprehension and discomfort, and elicit exclusion The respondents unanimously