2016-09-17 16:47:00

Rights groups call for release of Indian activist ‎‎


International rights groups have urged Indian authorities to immediately release a prominent rights activist in India’s troubled Kashmir region, who was arrested a day after ‎he ‎was ‎barred from leaving India to travel to Geneva to participate in a session of the United ‎Nations' ‎Human ‎Rights Council.   Police picked up Khurram Parvez from ‎his ‎home in the region's main city Srinagar late Thursday night. 

Parvez and his organization, the Coalition of Civil Society, were the first to report and ‎draw ‎attention ‎to thousands of mass graves in remote parts of Kashmir and to demand that the ‎government ‎investigate ‎them to make clear who the dead were and how they were killed.  His ‎organization has also ‎written ‎scathing reports on cases of brutality involving some of the hundreds of ‎thousands of Indian ‎troops in ‎the region and highlighted the widespread powers granted to troops ‎posted in the area, which ‎had led ‎to a culture of impunity and widespread rights abuses‎. Parvez, who is also chairman of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), was not given a valid reason nor was he informed of the grounds for the decision to prohibit him from leaving the country.

In a statement on Sept. 15, AFAD, based in Manila, the Philippines, said the ban imposed on him is a "violation of his freedom of movement and "a clear attempt to interfere with his work as a human rights defender."  AFAD also condemned India's decision to bar Parvez from traveling.  "In our view, travel bans preventing human rights defenders from accessing the UN are desperate efforts to isolate the people in Jammu and Kashmir, while ensuring impunity for the denial of basic human rights," the group said in a statement.

“Monitoring and engagement by civil society is necessary to prevent human rights violations and ensure accountability,” Sam Zarifi, Asia-Pacific director at the International Commission of Jurists said and called on the Indian government to immediately release Parvez and begin working with him and other activists to address the difficult issues facing Jammu and Kashmir.  “Instead of trying to silence human rights activists, India should be addressing the serious human rights problems in Jammu and Kashmir and holding abusers to account,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, demanding the release of Parvez. 

The arrest comes as the troubled Himalayan region has been hit by some of the most serious anti-‎India ‎protests in recent years.  Triggered by the killing of a popular rebel leader two months ago, the ‎protests ‎have left more than 80 people dead and thousands wounded, mostly by government forces ‎firing ‎bullets and shotgun pellets to quell the demonstrations.‎








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