Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez arrested by J&K police

Noted Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez was detained by the police late on 15 September, a day after he was barred from boarding a flight from Delhi to Geneva, to attend a United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) session there.

Parvez has been detained at the Kothibagh Police station, without any written document, or a court order justifying the grounds on which he has been put under arrest.

"He has been detained, without formal arrest or notifications, and in violation of his rights to information, and legal counsel. He has not been provided with any written document, court order or the reasons for his detention," Parvez Imroz, president of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) told India Today.

Parvez is the Programme Coordinator of JKCCS and its spokesperson, and chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances.

He was enroute to Switzerland, to attend the 33rd UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva to brief UN bodies, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and foreign governments on the present Kashmir situation, when he was disallowed from boarding his flight from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, on 14 September.

"At around 1.30 am, as I was about to board my flight to Geneva, I was stopped at immigration and detained for one-and-a-half hours. The officer had stamped my boarding pass but they subsequently disallowed me to proceed to board the flight,'' he had told The Indian Express.

On his return from Delhi, police officials from the Kothibagh Police station summoned him to the station, saying that the Superintendent of Police wanted to have a word with him, Parvez's family members told Indian Express.

"He called the SP and told him he will come at 10 am tomorrow,'' a relative told Indian Express. "Late in the night, a police party came to his home, asking him to accompany them to the police station. There wasn't any police officer in the police station at that time. They told us that he would have to stay in the police station."