Social rights activist Shabnam Hashmi says attacks on human rights defenders have increased manifold during the last three years. It began with the activists who are working on questions of environment and land, to people working on legal aspects then to people who raise questions of democracy and secularism and freedom of expression. These human rights activists are trolled on social media, receive abusive and sexist comments, she said.
She recalled that the day she returned the award, her inbox was full of abusive comments not only that she also got threat messages that she will be gang raped. A person who claimed to be a sub-inspector of police warned her that he would kill her in an encounter.
Shabnam Hashmi claims that the voices of the oppressed are being maligned in a very systematic way. She sought attention of all especially foreign agencies over the issue.
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