Khurram Parvez, a prominent human rights defender in the Valley and the coordinator of the civil-society group Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society has been arrested by National Investigation Agency under draconian UAPA.
Parvez was charged under sections 17, 18, 38, and 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The arrest comes after the NIA raid at Parvez’s residence and the JKCSS office in Srinagar. The raid was in connection with a terror funding probe. The Jammu and Kashmir Police and paramilitary personnel also joined the raid.
Parvez’s electronic devices and books were confiscated during the raid.
Official sources said that Parvez’s family has been handed over the arrest memo under case number 30/2021 and is likely to be flown to New Delhi on Tuesday, The Kashmir Walla reported.
On 28 October and 29 October last year, NIA conducted searches at several locations in Jammu and Kashmir including Parvez’s house and JKCCS office in connection with a case related to the funding of “secessionist and separatist activities.”
Khurram Parvez has long been a vocal critic of the rights violations in the Valley and was arrested for two and a half months in 2016. Two days before his arrest in 2016, the Indian immigration authorities had refused to let Parvez board a flight to Geneva, where he was scheduled to address the United Nations Human Rights Council about India’s human-rights record. After 75 days of imprisonment, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had quashed his detention as “illegal.”
Parvez is also the Chairman of the Board of Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD).
Parvez’s JKCCS had published several reports on human rights violations in Kashmir in the past.
