Khurram Parvez, Siddique Kappan unfairly imprisoned: USCIRF

Washington DC: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has listed human rights defender Khurram Parvez and journalist Siddique Kappan on the Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) Victims List.

The FoRB list is a database of persons who have been imprisoned or detained in a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), which USCIRF defines as a country that has engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations of religious freedom. India has been recommended as a CPC for two years in a row.

The move was lauded by the Indian American Muslim Council, an organisation committed to campaigning for justice for these activists and others who are wrongfully imprisoned for working to uphold India’s constitutional values of secularism and pluralism.

Who are the two victims?

Khurram Parvez, who was arrested by Indian police in November, is a globally-renowned human rights defender from Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority province. He is the coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), an organization that has repeatedly criticized the human rights abuses committed by Indian security forces in Kashmir on the orders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On November 22, 2021, Parvez was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), India’s draconian anti-terror law on baseless charges of “terror-funding,” “conspiracy,” and “waging war against the government of India.” On December 4, 2021, he was transferred to a maximum security prison in New Delhi to await hearing, despite the flimsiness of the charges against him. His current location is unknown.

Siddique Kappan is a Muslim journalist who is currently being held in a jail in Uttar Pradesh state since his arrest in October 2020. Kappan was arrested while on his way to Hathras, a district in Uttar Pradesh, to report on the brutal rape and murder of a teenage Dalit girl. Authorities stated that Kappan was being held on baseless charges of “sedition,” “promoting enmity between groups,” “outraging religious feelings,” and “knowingly holding property derived or obtained from the commission of a terrorist act.”

Despite the weakness of the case against him, Kappan was charged under the UAPA, and has remained imprisoned for over a year. According to USCIRF, “In addition to catching COVID-19 [in prison], Kappan reportedly suffers from depression, anxiety, and poor eyesight. He has reportedly been unable to receive adequate medical care.”

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