Human rights activist Khurram Parvez arrested by the NIA in Kashmir

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Khurram Parvez, the human rights activist in Kashmir on November 22 in connection with an ongoing probe in a terror-funding case.

Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez, a file photograph.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Khurram Parvez, the human rights activist in Kashmir on November 22 in connection with an ongoing probe in a terror-funding case. The investigating agency raided Khurram Parvez’s residence in Sonwar and his office at Amira Kadal, both in Srinagar, earlier on November 22.

Khurram Parvez is the programme coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, a well-known advocacy group in Jammu and Kashmir. He has worked tirelessly over the years to highlight human rights violations in the Kashmir Valley.

The terror-funding case in question has been filed under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). It is not clear whether Parvez has been charged under the UAPA. The NIA’s official twitter handle is yet to post an update in this regard.

However, a New Delhi-based English daily reported that the NIA’s arrest memo had listed the charges under IPC Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging, attempting to wage, abetting waging of war against the government) and 121A (conspiracy to commit offences punishable by Section 121); and Sections 17 (raising funds for terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy), 18B (recruiting of any person or persons for terrorist act) and 40 (raising funds for a terrorist organisation) of the UAPA.

Mary Lawlor, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, tweeted: “I’m hearing disturbing reports that Khurram Parvez was arrested today in Kashmir & is at risk of being charged by authorities in #India with terrorism-related crimes. He’s not a terrorist, he’s a Human Rights Defender.”