Photo: Indian Express
Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez was detained a second time, immediately after a court ordered his release from administrative detention on Tuesday.
“Detaining a person right after he is released, without any intention to charge him or bring him to trial, amounts to using a revolving door of persecution,” said Aakar Patel, executive director, Amnesty International India.
“This kind of arbitrary use of the law suggests that the Jammu and Kashmir police are determined to lock up Khurram Parvez at any cost,” he added.
Khurram was earlier arrested on September 16 and put under administrative detention in a Kupwara jail for allegedly posing an imminent threat to 'breach of peace'.
The police claimed that on September 15, Khurram stood outside a mosque inciting people to shout slogans and march towards a government building. Rebutting the claim his wife maintained that they were at her parents’ house in another part of the city at the time.
There were widespread protests against first the curb on his freedom of movement and then his detention. Colleagues, friends and family moved the court against these arbitrary acts.
On Tuesday, the session court judge ruled, "I am of the opinion that the order passed by the learned Magistrate is not in accordance with the law. Same is liable to be set aside and is set aside accordingly. The petitioner (Khurram Parvez) is ordered to be set free."
A copy of the order was sent to the SP of Kupwara district jail. Reports indicate that Khurram Parvez was moved to Kothi Bagh police station in Srinagar and that he has been re-arrested under another section of a 'security' law existent in the state. Therefore he continues to be detained against the earlier court order!
In its statement, Amnesty International India demanded that either Parvez be released immediately or charged with a recognizable criminal offence and prosecuted in a fair trial.
"Pending his release, he must be protected from torture or other ill-treatment, given access to his family and lawyers, and provided adequate medical care," the statement added.