SRINAGAR: Amnesty International Thursday issued an alert to immediately and unconditionally release Khurram Parvez or charge him with an internationally recognizable criminal offence and try him in accordance with international standards.
AI said that pending his release, it must be ensured that he is not subjected to torture or any other ill-treatment, and that he be granted regular and unrestricted access to his lawyers and provided adequate medical care and attention.
It also said urged to immediately lift any travel bans imposed on him.
Khurram Parvez, a prominent Kashmiri human rights defender, has been placed in administrative detention a day after a court ordered his release on 20 September. He was previously prevented from flying to the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva without any official explanation and arrested on 16 September.
Khurram Parvez was arrested on 16 September and placed in administrative detention in Kupwara, over 100 kilometres from his home in Srinagar, for allegedly posing an imminent threat of ‘breach of peace’. The detention order was based on a police report which claimed that policemen had seen Khurram Parvez on 15 September standing outside a mosque inciting people to shout slogans and march towards a government building. His wife has denied the claim, saying that they were at her parents’ house in another part of the city at the time.
On 20 September, a court in Srinagar ordered Khurram Parvez to be released after ruling that the executive official who ordered the detention had not followed necessary procedures including by failing to adequately explain the grounds for his detention. As soon as Khurram Parvez was released, he was again detained and transferred to a police station in Srinagar. His lawyers say that the police are holding him in administrative detention under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, but the police have not provided any reasons for the detention. He is being detained in the Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu, about 300 kilometres from his home in Srinagar.
On 14 September, Khurram Parvez was stopped at Delhi’s International Airport and prevented from travelling to the UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva. He was not given any official explanation by the immigration officer, only that he needed approval by the Intelligence Bureau before travelling.
Khurram Parvez uses a prosthetic leg. His left leg was amputated due to a landmine injury in 2004.
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