Statement by JKCCS
Today, the 55th day of Khurram Parvez’s
unlawful detention, marks the 124th day of continued curfew,
restrictions and widespread and systematic State violence against the
people of Jammu and Kashmir since 8 July 2016. The violence thus far has
resulted in 100+ killings, 15, 000+ injured including by pellet shot
guns resulting in blindness, and 10, 000+ arrests including under the
Public Safety Act (PSA). Khurram Parvez was arrested early on 16
September, after being stopped at the New Delhi international airport
from travelling to Geneva for the 33rd UN Human Rights Council Session.
Following his initial arrest and detention being quashed by the Sessions
Court, Srinagar, he was re-arrested and is presently detained at Kot
Bhalwal Jail Jammu under PSA for being a threat to “public order”. The
petition challenging his unlawful detention is listed before the Jammu
and Kashmir High Court, Srinagar, on 15 November. The State has yet to
file any response to the petition, thereby causing further delay in
proceedings.
Today, JKCCS releases a dossier – “State
versus Khurram Parvez: A Peoples’ Dossier” – that serves as a summary of
Khurram Parvez and his work. It is ironic, that a man who has so
courageously raised his voice against human rights abuses by the Indian
state, is now a victim of the very same lawlessness, held without trial
under a law whose injustice he is to a great extent responsible for
illuminating. The arrest of Khurram Parvez, is a silencing not just of
his voice, but has a chilling effect on all those who speak for the
voiceless in Kashmir, jeopardizing the work and space he and others have
carefully crafted over years against the forces of fear and repression.
As only one among thousands of forgotten victims of the Indian state’s
repression of Kashmiri people, the struggle for his release is a part of
the larger struggle for rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Despite widespread global condemnation of
illegal detention of Khurram Parvez, the Indian State has chosen
violence over processes of justice and rule of law. The government has
ignored the demand of five Special Rapporteurs/Working Groups of the UN,
and numerous international and Indian individuals and groups –
including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International
Coalition against Enforced Disappearances, Asian Federation against
Involuntary Disappearances and the International Commission of Jurists –
for the immediate release of Khurram Parvez. Today’s release of the
dossier must serve to once again draw attention to the unlawful
detention of Khurram Parvez and the ongoing violence against the people
of Jammu and Kashmir. JKCCS demands the immediate release of Khurram
Parvez and all others illegally detained under PSA and regular criminal
law, and urges the international community to continue to campaign and
question Government of India on its continued violence in Jammu and
Kashmir.
Parvez Imroz, Advocate
President, JKCCS
Read the “Peoples’ Dossier” on Khurram Parvez released by JKCCS
http://www.jkccs.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Peoples-Dossier-3.pdf
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