UN criticizes arrest of rights activist Khurram Parvez
India’s anti-terrorism agency on Monday night arrested Khurram Parvez, a prominent human rights activist in Indian-administered Kashmir under a draconian anti-terrorism law.
India’s National Investigation Agency, aided by police and paramilitary soldiers, raided the home and office of Khurram Parvez in Srinagar, according to his wife.
The arrest of Parvez marks an escalation in the crackdown on rights groups, activists and journalists, in the disputed region of Kashmir.
Parvez, 44, is one of Kashmir’s best-known activists, and the head of Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, a group that for decades has monitored and investigated human rights violations — from mass graves to allegations of abuse by Indian security forces in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
He was arrested and detained on similar charges in 2016, after being stopped from leaving the country to participate in a session at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
UN criticizes arrest of rights activist
Rights groups including the United Nations have criticized the arrest of a prominent activist in Indian-administered Kashmir on terror funding charges.
Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, called Parvez’s arrest “disturbing.””He’s not a terrorist, he’s a human rights defender,” she said in a tweet.