Indian authorities have released prominent Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez on bail after five years in prison on “terrorism”, although he remains under tight court-imposed restrictions.
Parvez walked free from a New Delhi jail, their relatives said, as India’s National Investigation Agency seeks to overturn their bail.
Parvez, a programme coordinator for the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), was arrested in 2021 by the National Investigation Agency at his home in Srinagar. He face charges of “funding terrorism” and “propagation of secessionist agenda” under India’s stringent “antiterrorism” laws, which in effect allow authorities to hold people without trial indefinitely.
The National Investigation Agency accuses him of using the JKCCS to fund militant-linked activities and promote a separatist agenda, while he denies the allegations.
“I realized that I can do something which is more meaningful, where I would be involved in saving lives and not inciting violence, and not becoming part of revenge.” -Parvez says.
Founder and Programme Coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) and the Chair of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, a collective of 13 non-governmental organisations from ten Asian countries, Khurram Parvez relentlessly investigated and reported on violations in Kashmir, including the indefinite detention and extrajudicial execution of activists, torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, and widespread impunity. Despite facing repression and attacks by State and non-State actors, he courageously continued to denounce violations of rights and became an inspiration to young Kashmiris as well as students from India and abroad whom he encouraged to seek peaceful conflict resolution. He also engaged with the United Nations and other international organisations to develop global solidarity for Kashmiris.
¨The soft-spoken Khurram is almost a modern-day David who gave a voice to families that lost their children to enforced disappearances, allegedly by the Indian State. Khurram is the story and the storyteller of the insurgency and the betrayal of the people of Kashmir¨ – Rana Ayyub , journalist wrote when Parvez received the Martin Ennals Awards.