Release of Khurram Parvez, all other Kashmiri political detainees demanded
Srinagar: Civil society in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir has demanded the immediate release of all illegally detained Kashmiris, including prominent human rights defender Khurram Parvez.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Khurram Parvez has completed four years under unlawful detention. He was arrested on November 22, 2021, by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) on fabricated charges, including “waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting the waging of war, against India.” He was later booked under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Members of civil society in Srinagar deplored that Khurram Parvez is being punished for highlighting human rights violations by Indian forces in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. They said his arrest is yet another example of how anti-terror laws are being misused to target Kashmiris.
MP Agha Ruhulla, in a social media post, wrote: “For 1,460 days—four long years—Khurram Parvez has remained locked inside a cell in Delhi’s Rohini Jail, 500 kilometres away from his young children and his wife. His only ‘crime’ was giving voice to those the world preferred not to see. They charged him under anti-terror laws, yet the only weapons Khurram ever carried were his words, his courage, and his relentless work. Even after an IED blast took two of his colleagues and cost him his leg, he refused to step back from the path of justice. November 22 marks four years of his unlawful imprisonment. It places a responsibility on all of us to carry his work forward. Our greatest act of solidarity is to stand up every day, in our own small but steady ways, against oppression, against the shrinking of our rights, and for the dignity of our people. For Khurram, for Irfan, and for every Kashmiri who has dared to defend our rights, a Kashmir that speaks in one voice, for them and for itself, is the powerful tribute we can offer.”
Meanwhile, APHC leaders in Srinagar stated that, besides Khurram Parvez, thousands of Kashmiris—including APHC Chairman Masarrat Aalam Butt, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Aasiya Andrabi, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Fehmeeda Sofi, Naheeda Nasreen, Ayaz Muhammad Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Raja Merajuddin Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Mushtaqul Islam, Molvi Bashir Irfani, Bilal Siddiqi, Abdul Ahad Parra, Omar Adil Dar, Fayaz Hussain Jafari, Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo, Dr Abdul Hameed Fayaz, and others—remain imprisoned in various jails across India and occupied Kashmir. They urged the international community to intervene for the release of these detainees.
