Amnesty cautions employees in wake of protests

New Delhi, Aug 18 (PTI) Amnesty today advised its staff inIndia to work either from home or a different location in thewake of protests against the NGO for organising an event whereanti-India slogans were allegedly raised. "We were told by police to keep our staff away from officefor a while as a precaution. So, we told our employees toeither work from home or some other location. "Apparently, there were protests outside our Bengaluruoffice…So police cautioned us in the morning," AmnestyInternational India’s spokesperson said. "By tomorrow, our employees would assume normal workingmode. We are not shutting down our offices," the spokeswomansaid when asked about reports of its offices closingtemporarily. Bengaluru Police have slapped sedition charges againstAmnesty International India, which has said none of itsemployees had shouted any anti-India slogan during adiscussion on Kashmir held in the city on Saturday. The NGO rejected as "without substance" the allegationsraised by the ABVP, the student outfit of the RSS. "The allegations mentioned in the complaint are withoutsubstance. The event was an open door event and people werecoming and going. No staff members were involved," thespokesperson said. Meanwhile, the video footage of the event was beingexamined by the police to identify those who allegedly raisedanti-India slogans. Congress leader Digvijay Singh had yesterday quotedKarnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as saying that noarrests would be made pending the probe into the event even asABVP intensified protests across the state demanding immediatearrest of those who allegedly raised anti-India and anti-Armyslogans. PTI KND GVS ZMNGVS