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2 August 2024 - As he completes 500 days of arbitrary detention in Rohini high security prison, civil society organisations, including the FIDH and OMCT within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, call for the immediate release of Kashmiri journalist and human rights defender Irfan Mehraj.
On
August 2, 2024 journalist and human rights defender Irfan Mehraj
completes 500 days in jail at the maximum-security Rohini prison in
New Delhi, India. His jail term is a brutal retaliation against his
human rights work and a mockery of justice. We, seven civil society
organisations signing this statement, call for his immediate and
unconditional release. We demand an end to the Indian government’s
endless repression targeting Kashmiri human rights defenders and
journalists.
Irfan
Mehraj is a respected journalist, researcher and human
rights defender from Srinagar. He worked as a researcher at the
Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), a leading civil
society organisation in Indian-administered Kashmir. He is the
founding editor of Wande Magazine, a senior editor at TwoCircles.net
and a frequent contributor to leading news publications in Kashmir,
India and internationally.
On
March 20, 2023, Irfan Mehraj was detained by India’s National
Investigation Agency (NIA) under provisions of the Indian Penal Code
and the draconian anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act (UAPA). According to a March 2023 NIA press
release, Irfan Mehraj was targeted for being
‘a close associate of Khurram Parvez,’ the
coordinator for JKCCS, whose human rights work and support for
victims of human rights violations in Kashmir has been equated by the
NIA with funding terror. Human rights defender Khurram
Parvez is imprisoned since
November 2021 in a separate case under the UAPA.
There
is widespread condemnation of the ongoing incarceration of Irfan
Mehraj and Khurram Parvez, and the broader persecution of human
rights defenders and journalists in Kashmir. The Indian government
has failed to respond to the human rights violations and concerns in
Kashmir raised by United
Nations experts and international human rights
organisations. Instead, the government continues to inflict brutal
and unjust repression and retaliation to silence human rights work,
labelling human rights defenders as terrorists and anti-national.
The
continuing abuse of the UAPA and the repressive Jammu and Kashmir
Public Safety Act (PSA), which permits preventive detention without
charge, has deterred the work and safety of journalists and human
rights defenders. The repression has worsened since the unilateral
abrogation
of Jammu and Kashmir’s
statehood and the constitutional rights of the people of Kashmir in
August 2019. Irfan Mehraj’s continued incarceration on baseless
charges, an obvious retaliation for his human rights work, speaks to
the high risk borne by the region's activists. They live and work in
one of the most densely militarised regions in the world.
We
stand in solidarity with Irfan Mehraj and his family as his
imprisonment reaches 500 days. We thank him for his vital
contributions in defending the rights of people of his region. The
signatories call for Irfan’s immediate release and an end to the
unjust and brutal suffering inflicted on him and his family. We urge
Indian authorities to repeal regressive laws including the UAPA and
the PSA and immediately end reprisals against human rights defenders,
journalists and other critical voices. We also call upon Indian
authorities to comply with their international human rights
obligations by promoting human rights in Kashmir, allowing civil
society and the media to freely operate in Kashmir and granting
international civil society, international media and the UN’s human
rights experts unfettered access to Kashmir and Kashmiri prisoners.
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