India, Oct. 21 -- Over 20 UN human rights experts on Tuesday voiced alarm at the "repeatedly heavy-handed police response" to peaceful youth-led demonstrations in New Delhi and other cities over the past three months, calling on authorities to "respect, protect and fulfil" the right to peacefully protest.

"This crackdown reflects a broader, troubling pattern," the experts said in a statement in Geneva. "We have repeatedly alerted the Indian authorities to undue restrictions on peaceful assembly, excessive use of force, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and the targeting of student activists, amongst others."

The experts said they are "alarmed" by the "repeatedly heavy-handed police response to peaceful youth-led demonstrati...