Takeaways from AP investigation into police shootings of alleged cow smugglers in India

Police in India’s most populous state have shot hundreds of Muslim men accused of cow smuggling in the legs in encounters that critics describe as extrajudicial justice designed to pander to India’s Hindu majority, an Associated Press investigation found.

Police in Uttar Pradesh say they shoot in self-defense and that the state’s “zero tolerance” policy on crime has helped restore law and order. Now the tactic of shooting people just below the knee — known locally as “Operation Lame” — is spreading to other states in India, even as human rights lawyers, local judges and activists raise alarms about rule of law and religious bias in the world’s largest democracy.

Here are key takeaways from the investigation.

Read more