Kashmir activist Khurram Parvez, detained under draconian Public Safety Act, finally set free

Prominent human right activist and coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir coalition for civil society, Khurram Parvez, walked out of jail on Tuesday morning, after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashed his arrest, made under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA). Parvez, who was accused of being a “threat to peace in the Kashmir Valley”, was arrested in September. The state government had faced criticism, both locally and internationally, for booking the activist under PSA. [caption id=“attachment_3132806” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Khurram Parvez. Image courtesy: Twitter/@KhurramParvez[/caption] Often called “lawless laws”, the PSA was introduced by popular Kashmir leader Sheikh Abdullah in 1978, to keep timber smuggling in check. However, its use has been often been criticised by people across the political spectrum; rights activists have called for its abrogation. But despite criticism, the J&K government not only continues to use it, but it also just set a new record during the ongoing agitation, booking more than 500 persons, including minors, under the Act. Successive governments in the state have used the law to crush dissent and political opponents. Khurram, too, was arrested under the same Act, which allows police to detain any person without charge or trail, and hold him/her up to six months or even two years. Finally, after 76 days of incarceration, Khurram’s name was finally cleared by the court on Friday. However, due to a clerical error — the date of issue of the PSA warrant — jail authorities refused to release him. He was only set free on Tuesday, and is currently in Jammu, and is likely to reach Srinagar on Friday, said Khurram’s colleague, Pervaiz Imroz. “The judgment is the vindication of the fact that his (Khurram’s) detention was illegal and unlawful,” Imroz, himself a well-known human right lawyer, told Firstpost. Despite release orders from the court, however, jail authorities had refused to release the activist; instead, he was taken by the counter-intelligence wing of the Kashmir police, who interrogated him at Meeran Sahib, Jammu. The state government under chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has come under harsh criticism from the court, which termed Parvez’s arrest “illegal” and an “abuse of power”, and ordered the government to release him from prison immediately. Upon release, Khurram reportedly expressed gratitude to the local and international solidarity campaigning for his release. Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar, J&K High Court judge, while referring to the PSA during is pronouncement of the detention order, had said, “A society which catapulted itself to the highest position of democratic values and principles, may not accept the law like the Act of 1978.” He added that Parvez’s detention order is not only illegal but the detaining authority has also abused its powers in ordering it. “The detaining authority has stated that activities of the detainee were highly prejudicial to the security of the Valley and maintenance of public order. However, they have not elucidated as to which activities were prejudicial to the security of the territory and which were against maintenance of public order,” the order said. The court held that nothing was brought to its notice, either on grounds of detention or in the reply affidavit that in the investigation of the FIRs involvement of detainee surfaced as accused. “In absence of any such material having been brought to the notice of the court, at this stage, it has to be presumed that the detainee is not involved in any of these FIRs,” the court said. It also raised serious questions about the police case against Parvez that led to his arrest initially, saying that police witnesses made “parrot-like statements” and failed to provide the content of the slogans the police had accused Pervez of raising and instigating people. Before his arrest, Khurram was barred from travelling to Geneva to participate in a UN Human Rights Council session. As many as 52 activists, scholars, writers and lawyers had written an open letter demanding his immediate release. Parvez, programme coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, he had often accused the government of gross human rights violation and failing the people of the Kashmir Valley. At the time of his arrest, he wasn’t given any reason, and was only slapped with a charge under PSA later. Srinagar SSP described him as an “anti-social element known for his anti-national activities” and said he’d has “achieved a prominent position in separatist camps under the hidden cover of being a human rights activist”. But the reasons for his detention, Kashmir observers say, was not connected with the ongoing unrest at all, but rather to a case of alleged molestation of a teenaged girl by an Army soldier in north Kashmir’s Handwara town earlier this year. Khurram has campaigned against the state government for its inability to protect the identity of the teenaged victim, and harassing her instead. His campaigning had caused a huge public outcry in the state.