India

Lachit Bordoloi is a journalist and adviser of Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS), an organisation working to defend human rights in the Assam region. With other representatives of civil society he was invited to join the People’s Committee for Peace Initiatives in Assam (PCPIA) and is a member of the People’s Consultative Group (PCG), an organisation set up to initiate peace discussions between the Indian Government and the United Liberation Front of Assam. 

A human rights defender, Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi has been subjected to renewed death threats, received on his mobile phone on 22 and 23 July 2009. Dr Raghuvanshi is the convener of the People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) and also a member of the District Vigilance Committee on Bonded Labour in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. 

Front Line would like to express its grave concern in relation to updated information received concerning the medical needs of detained human rights defender Dr Binayak Sen. Dr Binayak Sen is the General Secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) regional office in the state of Chhattisgarh, as well as the Vice-President of the PUCL at a national level. 

Front Line is concerned by reports that representatives of a child labour rescue mission were attacked by members of a cement company located in Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh, as they tried to conduct a raid, together with local police, on the company who had been found to be employing over 100 children under the age of 14 years. 

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports received of the severe beating and arrest of human rights defender Advocate Parvez Imroz on 17 November 2008 by Indian security forces, before being released without charge late in the evening. Advocate Parvez Imroz is the co-convener of the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered Kashmir, and the co-founder and president of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS). Front Line previously wrote to you on 1 July 2008 concerning the attempted assassination of Advocate Parvez Imroz.