New Delhi: Ever since the arrest of eminent human rights activist Teesta Setalvad and ex-DGP R.B. Sreekumar, many sections of people are demanding their immediate release.
Now, 260 prominent human rights activists, intellectuals, journalists, artists and community leaders from all over the world strongly condemned the arrest of Teesta Setalvad and R.B. Sreekumar, Sanjiv Bhatt (already in prison for over 18 months) as well as a journalist and fact-checker Mohammed Zubair in India.
The newly launched broad-based alliance, Solidarity for the Prisoners of Conscience in India, had appealed for this show of solidarity.
In the statement in support of Teesta, Sreekumar and other human rights defenders, they said, “the Gujarat Police swung into action in Emergency-type ruthlessness. They forcibly entered the house of human rights activist and lawyer, Teesta Setalvad, in Mumbai, assaulted her, and took her into custody on Jun. 25, 2022 (Emergency anniversary day)”. Soon after, Mr Sreekumar was arrested from his Ahmadabad, Gujarat residence.
On the arrest of a prominent journalist, Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of the fact-checking website AltNews, they said, “This too is reminiscent of the crackdown on journalists during the Emergency”.
They alleged that the present government is doing ‘governance by fear’.
Following are the 260 prominent human rights activists, intellectuals, journalists, artists and community leaders who signed the statement.
