The data provide perspective to the death of six farmers in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district on June 6, 2017, when police fired on protesting farmers demanding better prices.
 
As many as 796 civilians died due to police firing between 2009 and 2015, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
 

Source: National Crime Records Bureau, Crime In India reports for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015

 
A plentiful harvest in 2016 and imports drove some prices down 63%. A shortage of cash because of demonetisation led to “fire sales”, accentuating the price drops. Despite Rs 3.5 lakh crore–enough to build 545 Tehri-sized dams–invested over six decades to 2011, more than half of all farms depend on rains. These are the three factors agitating Indians who depend on farming–90 million families, or 54.6% of India’s 1.2 billion people, IndiaSpend reported on June 8, 2017.

 
The Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission has issued notices to the state government in response to the deaths. The state’s home minister initially denied reports of firing by local police on agitating farmers but later admitted that police resorted to firing to gain control of the rioting mob during the protest.
 
“The National Crime Records Bureau statistics say 318,528 farmers committed suicide between 1995 and 2015. A study suggests more than 2,000 farmers are heading to cities every day to make a living.” wrote Shashi Shekhar, editor-in-chief, Hindustan, in a column for the Mint on June 12, 2017. “The time has come when New Delhi and state leaderships thought seriously about this issue. The police or para-military force of independent India don’t look good firing at their own people. We don’t need more Mandsaurs.”
 

J&K drives decline in police firing
 
As many as 4,747 incidents of police firing were reported between 2009 and 2015. Over the years, firing incidents have decreased, mostly due to decline in incidents in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), which witnessed severe unrest between 2008 and 2010. For instance, in 2010, 662 incidents of police firing were reported in J&K, in which 91 civilians and 17 police personnel died, and 494 civilians and 2,952 police personnel were injured.
 

Source: National Crime Records Bureau, Crime In India reports for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015

 
55% firing incidents in 2015 classified as ‘on other occasion’
 
Of the 156 incidents of police firing in 2015, 86 were classified as ‘on other occasion’, 30 to effect arrest and 21 in riots. These incidents killed 16, five and 11 civilians, respectively. In the same year, 19 incidents of police firing in self defence led to 10 civilian deaths.

Source: National Crime Records Bureau, Crime In India reports 2014, 2015

 
Among the states, Rajasthan reported the maximum occasions (35) where police resorted to firing in 2015, followed by Maharashtra (33) and Uttar Pradesh (29).
 
Before 2014, the incidents of firing were categorised as: Riots, anti-dacoity operations, against terrorists and extremists and others. Between 2009 and 2013, these categories saw 1,371, 174, 815 and 775 incidents of police firing, respectively.
 

Source: National Crime Records Bureau, Crime In India reports for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013

Between 2009 and 2015, as many as 471 police personnel died during police firing, the NCRB data reveal.

 
Source: National Crime Records Bureau, Crime In India reports for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015
 
(Saha is an MA Gender and Development student at Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

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"Every day, we are seeing the devastating impact of the sale of arms and ammunition for use on civilians in Yemen."

A Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency room in Aden, Yemen. The medical charity has been forced to pull its staff from six facilities because of the Saudi-led war. (Photo: Guillaume Binet/MYOP via MSF.org)
 

The United States and other governments that continue to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia are guilty of "the worst kind of hypocrisy," an international watchdog charged last week, as the arms trade continues despite mounting evidence of civilian causalities, war crimes, and other atrocities being committed by the kingdom in Yemen.

"It is extremely concerning that many transfers are still continuing, in particular the governments of the United States, the UK, and France have authorised and are continuing to export very large quantities of weapons, including explosive weapons, bombs which are being used daily against civilians in Yemen," said Anna Macdonald, director of Control Arms Coalition.

The statement was made as governments convened in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Trade Organization's second conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which stipulates that signatories block any arms deal if there is evidence that the weapons will be used against civilians.

"At the heart of the ATT is the obligation on countries that have joined it to make an assessment of how the weapons they want to transfer will be used," states the Control Arms website. "They must determine if the arms would commit or facilitate genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and serious human rights violations."

Both France and the UK have ratified the agreement. While the US has signed on, Congress has failed to approve it.

 

"The ATT has been in force for nearly two years but some states parties are violating it with impunity," Macdonald continued. "Every day, we are seeing the devastating impact of the sale of arms and ammunition for use on civilians in Yemen."

Scores of Yemeni civilians have been killed in the past two weeks alone, as the Saudi-led military coalition bombed a potato chip factory, a school, and a Doctors Without Borders facility — forcing the aid group to withdraw its much-needed medical staff from six hospitals in the region.

Scores of Yemeni civilians have been killed in the past two weeks alone, as the Saudi-led military coalition bombed a potato chip factory, a school, and a Doctors Without Borders facility — forcing the aid group to withdraw its much-needed medical staff from six hospitals in the region.

This ongoing assault is also responsible for the displacement of more than three million Yemeni civilians, according to a new report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

And despite growing outcry, the US "remains defiant in its support for the Saudi campaign in Yemen," as Common Dreams reported this weekend.

As journalist Andrew Cockburn explained on Democracy Now!, the United States' "basically unconditional" support — through diplomatic means as well as military aid — has essentially given Saudi Arabia "carte blanche to continue this mindless carpet bombing…effectively destroying Yemen."

"We are part of that," Cockburn said, "this is our war, it is shameful."

What's more, as Cockburn points out, in contrast to the wide media attention given to the crisis in Syria, there is virtually no reporting on the countless deaths and atrocities being committed with US aid in Yemen.

Secretary of State John Kerry is to meet with Saudi leaders. Peace group CodePink is circulating a petition calling on Kerry to "make clear that the US will not continue to support Saudi Arabia’s war against Yemen and demand that the ceasefire is resumed."

This story was first posted on Commondreams.

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