Leading international daily the Washington Post has termed the closure ofAmnesty International in India as a shameful blow to human rights and freespeech in the country.

In an article, the paper writes that targeting of the global rightswatchdog is part of sustained efforts to transform India into a fasciststate by suppressing dissent.

The paper opines that by attacking Amnesty International, the Modi led BJPgovernment has actually tried to distract the attention of people from itsfailure of handling COVID-19 crisis that has resulted in rampantunemployment and poverty.