CIVICUS joins human rights organisations in calling on the Indian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Khurram Parvez and to end the persistent misuse of counter-terrorism laws to target civil society and suppress dissent.
On the eve of the 48th birthday of Khurram Parvez, a globally respected human rights defender from Indian-administered Kashmir, we, the undersigned organizations, renew our call for his immediate and unconditional release. Khurram has now spent over three and a half years in arbitrary detention under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) – an Indian counter-terrorism law that has been widely condemned by experts and the United Nations (UN) for violating legal rules and norms, including by enabling prolonged pre-trial incarceration.
Khurram is the Program Coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) and former Chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances. He was arrested on 22 November 2021 by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) and charged under multiple sections of the UAPA and Indian Penal Code. In March 2023, he was further implicated in a second case, alongside Kashmiri journalist and former JKCCS researcher Irfan Mehraj. The case, originally filed in October 2020, seeks to punish their human rights work as “funding terror activities” and the “propagation of secessionist agenda[s].”
