Rights organisations from Thailand, Bangladesh, Switzerland, India, France and Philippines have called for immediate release of prominent Kashmiri human rights defender, Khurram Parvez.
A joint statement was issued by rights groups- The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, The Asian Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Defenders Alert - India, FORUM-ASIA, The International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances and Odhikar.
“Our organisations call for immediate release of Khurram Parvez and urge Indian authorities not to prolong his unlawful detention,” reads the joint statement.
“On October 26, 2016 the High Court in Jammu and Kashmir again prolonged the arbitrary detention of Parvez, who has already spent 40 days in jail and our organisations call on Indian authorities to release him immediately,” the statement said.
“On October 25, 2016 the Jammu Kashmir High Court heard the case against Parvez filed under the Public Safety Act. Parvez’s family had filed a petition on 13 October 2016 challenging his detention, to which the State failed to respond. However, instead of releasing Parvez, the High Court granted the State another three weeks to respond, sending Parvez back to Jammu’s Kot Balwal Jail, 300 km from his home, family, and legal counsel in Srinagar. The Court has set the next hearing date for November 14, meaning that Parvez risks spending at least 20 more days in arbitrary detention.”
The joint statement said on September 14, 2016 Parvez was stopped from travelling to Geneva to participate in the United Nations Human Rights Council on orders from the Intelligence Bureau, and was arrested two days later at his home in Kashmir under Sections 107 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code and denied access to legal counsel.
The statement said a judge from the High Court issued an order for Parvez’s release on September 20, but police promptly re-arrested him under the preventive detention provisions of the Public Safety Act (PSA).
It said he has remained arbitrarily detained since, along with hundreds of others individuals detained under the ambiguous and oft-manipulated PSA.
“Our organisations denounce this abuse of the PSA by the Indian authorities to silence human rights defenders and dissidents under the guise of national security. Almost 800 people have been arrested in central Kashmir since protests broke out in July 2016, with at least 80 of them booked under the PSA,” the joint statement said. “On October 19, 2016, several United Nations experts called on the Government of India to release Parvez, and expressed their concerns regarding the arbitrary application of the PSA against human rights defenders. Nevertheless, Indian authorities have ignored this call and their obligations under international law by continuing to hold Parvez in arbitrary detention.”
The statement condemned the arbitrary use of the Public Safety Act to unlawfully detain Parvez and call for his immediate and unconditional release.
“Additionally, we demand an end to the harassment of human rights defenders and that the Indian government remove all legal and administrative barriers that impede their legitimate work. We also call on the international community, notably the other members of the United Nations Human Rights Council of which India is currently a member, to insist that India comply with its human rights obligations, including by allowing Indian human rights defenders to freely engage in their work and to enjoy their rights to free expression, peaceful assembly, and association,” joint statement said.
FILE PHOTO.