AAI Board Member Targeted by Gunmen
India has become a dangerous place for people who publicly promote rationality and expose charlatans who use ‘magic’ tricks to claim they have powers from God.
Several Indian rationalists have been killed since 2013. Most of these killings follow a pattern—two men on a motorcycle draw alongside the victim and the pillion passenger unleashes a hail of bullets aimed at the victim’s head and chest. It’s brutal and effective, and invariably allows the assassins to escape the crime scene.
Following the killing of Gauri Lankesh outside her house in September 2017, a Special Investigation Team was set up to investigate allegations that a Hindu Nationalist group was behind the deaths. The team uncovered a hit-list of 34 rationalist writers targeted for execution and a plot to kill four prominent rationalists on a single day. Documents gave the names of the intended victims, the hit-men allocated to each execution and showed plans were at an advanced stage of preparation.
The intended victims included AAI Board member, Narendra Nayak. Police have arrested several alleged conspirators and the four targeted rationalists have been given police protection. Read more about our campaigns in India ↠