India frees Kashmir activist Khurram Parvez, journalist Irfan Mehraj with ban on return to home
A prominent Kashmiri human rights activist and a renowned journalist have been released on bail after years of imprisonment on what the duo and rights groups say are trumped-up “terror funding” charges in the highly militarised Indian-administered Kashmir.
Rights activist Khurram Parvez and independent journalist Irfan Mehraj were seized in 2021 and 2023 respectively, under India’s draconian terror laws. Parvez spent 1,703 days in Indian custody, while Mehraj remained in Indian jail custody for 1,219 days.
Despite their release from a New Delhi jail late on Wednesday, both remain under tight court-imposed restrictions as Indian federal counter-terror agency seeks to reverse the ruling.
The Indian government has increasingly cracked down against rights activists, journalists and dissidents in Kashmir under stringent anti-terror laws, particularly after August 2019, when India scrapped the region’s special status and annexed it.
Last week, a lower court in India allowed the two men to be released on bail, but India’s National Investigation Agency appealed the decision.
The Delhi High Court refused on Tuesday to suspend the release order but imposed tougher restrictions on their movements and activities while it hears the agency’s appeal.
They have to arrange for their stay in the capital, where they are facing trial, and cannot travel to Kashmir, according to a court document seen by the AFP news agency.
International human rights groups, including the United Nations’ human rights body, have consistently sought their release, saying that they were jailed for their work.
In 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said Parvez’s arrest was an “act of reprisal for his human rights work, and an attempt to silence him and Kashmiri civil society as a whole”.
Parvez has long been associated with noted rights group the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, or JKCCS, where Mehraj assisted as a researcher.
Both have been internationally recognised for their work.
Khurram also chairs the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), serves as FIDH Deputy Secretary-General and is a laureate of the 2023 Martin Ennals Award.
Irfan is a well-regarded independent journalist contributing to Kashmiri, Indian and international media. He founded Wande Magazine and serves as an editor at TwoCircles.net.
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