SRINAGAR: Authorities in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) have charged a leading human rights activist under a controversial security law and rearrested him shortly after a court ordered to release him, a police officer said on Thursday.
Khurram Pervez was formally charged on Wednesday night under the Public Safety Act (PSA) that allows detention for up to six months without trial, and he was rearrested after he left prison.
“He was sent to Kotbalwal jail under PSA last night,” a senior police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Pervez, coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), was first arrested last week for “breach of peace” and sent to a different jail, but a court on Tuesday ordered his release. It came after he was prevented by Indian immigration authorities from travelling to Geneva, where he had been due to brief UN officials on the strife-torn region.
“Detaining a person right after he is released, without any intention to bring him to trial, amounts to using a revolving door of persecution,” Amnesty International (AI) India Executive Director Aakar Patel said in a statement. “This kind of arbitrary use of the law suggests that the Jammu and Kashmir police are determined to lock up Khurram Pervez at any cost,” Patel said.