KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
On October 26, 2016 J&K High Court has again prolonged the arbitrary detention of Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez, who has already spent 40 days in jail. Our organisations call on the Indian authorities to release him immediately, a joint statement by AFAD, AHRC, FIDH, FORUM-ASIA, HRDA, ICAED and OMCT said.
These groups are fighting for the enforced disappearance cases in most of the Asian countries.
On October 25, 2016, the J&K High Court heard the case against Parvez filed under the Public Safety Act by his family on October 13, 2016 challenging his detention, to which the State failed to respond.
Instead of releasing Parvez, the statement said, the High Court granted the State another three weeks to respond, sending Parvez back to Jammu’s Kot Balwal Jail, 300 kilometres away 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.
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 2 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.
The High Court in Srinagar 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). 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,” the statement said. “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.”
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, the Indian authorities have ignored this call and their obligations under international law by continuing to hold him in arbitrary detention, the statement added.
“Our organisations condemn the arbitrary use of the Public Safety Act to unlawfully detain Parvez and call for his immediate and unconditional release,” the statement said. “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.”
