Human rights organisations, civil society leaders, lawyers and journalists have expressed concerns on the closure of Amnesty International India due to the Indian government's sudden freezing of the organization's bank accounts.

This is a blatant attack on an organization that has played a vital role in protecting human rights in the country by documenting the cases of human rights violations and exposing the state's failure, they said in a joint press statement.

They termed the closure of Amnesty an attack on the organisation for its human rights work in India, where it has regularly raised alarms about the state's failure to hold authorities accountable for their actions.

Amnesty India released two important reports: an update on the situation of human rights in Jammu & Kashmir following a year since the suspension of Article 370 of the Constitution of India and an investigative brief exposing the complicity of Delhi police in the February riots in the capital which claimed the lives of at least 53 people, mostly from the Muslim-minority community.

This is a worrying sign of a shrinking space for civil society and freedom of expression, the cornerstone of any democracy, the statement said, calling on the Indian government to urgently address this issue and to allow human rights organizations, activists and human rights defenders to operate freely and without fear.