Indian police arrest PhD scholar on frivolous charge in IIOJK

A PhD scholar from the Central University of Kashmir has been arrested by Indian police in a fake case in Kulgam district, today.

The police arrested the PhD scholar on the ridiculous charge of working for militant organisations. The police arrested two more youth on the same charge.

In April 2022, a PhD scholar from Kashmir University was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) over a “highly provocative and seditious” article in an online magazine.

No one should ever be wrongfully deprived of their rights to liberty and freedom without just cause, yet since abrogation of article 370 by India in occupied Kashmir, thousands of people have been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to far away prisons. #FreeAalaFazli pic.twitter.com/1vHl4mj1Dw

— Stevie Madden (@Steeveemaden) July 25, 2023

Abdul Aala Fazili was arrested from his Humhama residence in Srinagar as the SIA conducted searches at several locations in the city as part of its crackdown on “anti-national networks”, the official said.

The SIA carried out the searches in connection with an FIR registered under various sections of the dreaded Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the IPC against Fazili and the editor and other associates of monthly digital magazine ‘The Kashmir Walla’, the official said.

The searches were conducted at the Kashmir Walla’s office in Rajbagh and at the residences of Fazili in Humhama and arrested editor Fahad Shah in Soura, Srinagar, the official added.

As per the official, Fazili’s article, titled ‘The shackles of slavery will break’, was “highly provocative, seditious and intended to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, and written with the purpose of abetting the youth to take the path of militancy. It also “promoted and propagated the false narrative, aimed at breaking the territorial integrity of India,” the official added without being mindful of the UN-recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir