RISHI SUNAK must address India’s “appalling” human rights abuses at the G20 summit in New Delhi, campaigners demanded today.

Amnesty International reminded the PM, who is attending the summit this weekend, about the rise in hate crimes against minority groups in the country.

Under Narendra Modi’s governing party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), hate crimes against Muslims, Christians and other minorities have surged, the group said.

There have also been several reports of serious human rights violations and abuses in the north-east state of Manipur in India.

They include alleged acts of sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, home destruction, forced displacement, torture and ill-treatment, Amnesty says.

Amnesty International UK’s chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said: “India’s hosting of the G20 offers a crucial opportunity for Rishi Sunak to speak openly and frankly to Prime Minister Modi about India’s appalling human rights record, and the much-anticipated UK-India trade deal talks must not silence that.  

“Under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, the Indian authorities have harassed, silenced and carried out arbitrary arrests of government critics, placed unlawful restrictions on journalists and human rights defenders, and launched punitive raids on the offices of NGOs and media organisations such as the BBC.

“There’s been a deeply worrying pattern of anti-Muslim hate speech from numerous political and religious leaders, and Muslims and other minorities have been on the receiving end of discriminatory laws.”

Support Not Separation coalition will join mothers and campaigners outside the Indian High Commission in central London from 12.30pm tomorrow to demand an end to children from the global South being removed from their families.