Aakar Patel NEW DELHI, Apr 06 (AFP): Amnesty International's (AI) former India chief said Wednesday he was stopped from flying to the United States because of government legal action against the human rights watchdog.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration has long been accused of trying to silence critics, and activists say they have been targeted for harassment since he took office in 2014.
Aakar Patel said he was stopped from boarding his flight to the United States at the airport in the southern city of Bangalore because he was on an "exit control list".
He wrote on Twitter that he was then contacted by the country's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and told he was prevented from leaving "because of the case Modi govt has filed against Amnesty International India."
Amnesty has been a vocal critic of the Modi government's treatment of minorities and alleged abuses by Indian security forces in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
It halted its India operations in 2020 after the government froze its bank accounts in what the group said was part of an official "witch hunt".
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