By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
Srinagar: International human rights watchdog Front Line Defenders expressed concern on the harassment, arrest and detention of human rights defender Khurram Parvez and demanded his immediate release.
Front Line Defenders emphasized that his arrest is directly linked to his peaceful and legitimate activities in documenting human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, including enforced disappearance.
Parvez was arrested last week and later booked under the draconian Public Safety Act a few days after his arrest.
The PSA was promulgated by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1978 against timber smugglers. However, it was later used against political opponents and finally against people taking part in pro-freedom activities in J&K. The law allows arresting and jailing a person without trial for two years on mere suspicion that he/she may disrupt law and order in the state or may act in a manner prejudicial to the security of the state.
Front Line Defenders urged the authorities in India to immediately and unconditionally release Khurram Parvez, and drop all charges against him, as it feels that he is being held solely as a result of his legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights;
Also, the FLD has asked for lifting of the travel ban on Khurram Parvez and guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in India are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions.
Earlier this week, as many as 52 activists, scholars, writers and lawyers including Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy and Basharat Peer had written an open letter demanding the immediate release of Khurram Parvez. In their letter, the signatories said, “We are gravely concerned by the repeated abrogation of international law and the disregard for India’s constitutional provisions, and by the unceasing targeting of civilians and the continued denial of their civil and political rights.”
Khurram Parvez is the Chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), a collective of 13 non-governmental organizations from ten Asian countries, that campaign on the issue of enforced disappearances. He is also the Programme Coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), which is a coalition of various campaign, research and advocacy organisations based in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, which monitor and investigate human right abuses. He was scheduled to brief the 33rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council regarding the latest acts of violence in Kashmir, following the killing of the militant commander, Burhan Wani in the month of July this year.
Related:
Kashmiri activist barred from travelling to attend UN Human rights session
Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez arrested
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