By The Wire Staff
New Delhi: A coalition of 34 civil society organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances and others, led by the Committee to Protect Journalists, has called for the immediate release of Kashmiri independent journalist Irfan Mehraj and human rights defender Khurran Parvez.
While Mehraj completed three years in pre-trial detention on Friday (March 20), Parvez has been lodged in prison in Delhi since four years.
In a joint statement issued on March 19, the groups said Mehraj was detained by the National Investigation Agency on March 20, 2023 under the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Mehraj, a Srinagar-based independent journalist and founding editor of Wande Magazine, has written extensively on human rights issues in Kashmir and contributed to the Indian Express, Al Jazeera, Himal Southasian and Deutsche Welle.
Authorities have alleged that Mehraj was a close associate of Khurram Parvez, coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), and linked him to an investigation into alleged terror financing by NGOs. Pointing out that JKCCS is a well-known civil society organisation in Jammu and Kashmir, the statement said that the charges against both Mehraj and Parvez were “politically motivated” and “fabricated”.
“Our organisations urge the Indian authorities to repeal repressive laws including the UAPA
and the PSA and to create an enabling environment for civil society and the media to freely
and independently operate in Jammu and Kashmir,” the statement says.
It adds a call to the “international community to urge the Indian government to comply with its international human rights obligations, release Irfan Mehraj, Khurram Parvez and all other detained Kashmiri human rights defenders.”
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
