Eight activists who joined a Kashmir ‘solidarity gathering’ organised by Friends of Palestine on Tuesday in Kerala’s Kochi were briefly detained and booked under several sections, including rioting.
The event that says “being Kashmiri is not a crime” highlighted the hostilities faced by Kashmiris in the fallout of the Pahalgam militant attack that killed 26 people — 25 of them tourists visiting the valley and one Kashmiri man who tried to stop the gunman.
Before the event, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Eranakulam Town South Police Station handed the organisers a letter stating that permission for the gathering was denied as it may cause social animosity.
Rejaz M Sheeba Sydeek, the organiser, claimed the officer told him the event was “against the nation”, although he explained it was protesting the “collective punishment’ faced by Kashmiris.
Despite police warnings, activists joined the protest at Panampally Central Park in the evening with posters. The small gathering was disrupted by the police when two bystanders heckled the gathering, shouting at them that they are ‘anti-national’.
Police detained the protesters, five men and three women and later booked them under section 285 (Danger or obstruction in public way), 189(1) (Unlawful Assembly), 191(2)(rioting), and 190 ( Liability of members of unlawful assembly) of BHARATIYA NYAYA SANHITA (BNS), 2023.
The FIR, accessed by Maktoob, states that participants of the gathering obstructed the public road and caused inconvenience for people and vehicles by speaking on the road. It doesn’t mention how the gathering attracts sections related to rioting.
All accused are summoned by police to join the investigation on 30 April.
“The CI (Circle Inspector) said we were trying to justify the Pahalgam attack. Officers were hostile to us in the station,” Sydeek told Maktoob. Ashfaque EJ, a co-accused, said one of the officers, staring at a poster of a destroyed home in Kashmir, said, ‘bomb will be dropped again’.
The poster for the event listed issues faced by the Kashmiri community, including the demolition of houses of suspected militants despite a Supreme Court ruling against them. It also highlighted the “physical and cyber violence” Kashmiris face across India. It also states that over 1500 people have been interrogated in Kashmir following the attack.
Activists and Kashmiri political leaders have raised concerns over the collective punishment faced by Kashmiris following the attack. Since the attack last week, hate crimes against Kashmiri Muslims and Muslims in India have spiked, with at least two killings linked to the Pahalgam attack.
Members of Friends of Palestine, a local collective, have faced police harassment in the past for pro-Palestine activism in the state.
This week, a migrant worker from Assam was arrested in Kerala for allegedly sharing posts on social media that depicted the Prime Minister and other national leaders in a “derogatory manner.”
Eddisrh Ali (23), a resident of Dibrugarh, Assam, was arrested after a complaint by Deep G. Nair, the BJP president of the Aranmula constituency. The complaint alleged that he used “Facebook and other social media platforms to propagate anti-national content, including posting derogatory images of the Prime Minister and other national leaders, and sharing pro-Pakistan videos.”
