Kashmiri activist Khurram Parvez and journalist Irfan Mehraj freed on bail, under tight curbs

NEW DELHI (AP) — A prominent Kashmiri human rights activist and a renowned journalist have been released on bail after years of imprisonment on allegations of financing terrorism in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.

Rights activist Khurram Parvez and independent journalist Irfan Mehraj were arrested in 2021 and 2023 respectively, under India’s terror laws. Despite their release from a New Delhi jail late Wednesday, both remain under tight court-imposed restrictions as the country’s federal counterterror agency seeks to reverse the ruling.

The Indian government has increasingly cracked down against rights activists, journalists and dissidents in Kashmir under stringent anti-terror laws, particularly after August 2019, when India scrapped the region’s special status.

Last week, a lower court in India allowed the two men to be released on bail, but India’s National Investigation Agency appealed the decision. The Delhi High Court refused on Tuesday to suspend the release order but imposed tougher restrictions on their movements and activities while it hears the agency’s appeal.

International human rights groups, including the United Nations’ human rights body, have consistently sought their release, saying that they were jailed for their work.

Parvez has long been associated with noted rights group the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, or JKCCS, where Mehraj assisted as a researcher. The National Investigation Agency alleges the two used the group to fund militant-linked activities and promoted a separatist agenda. The two deny the allegations against them.

The JKCCS has released reports about what it calls the endemic use of torture by some of the hundreds of thousands of Indian troops in Kashmir, highlighting their expansive powers granted that have led to a culture of impunity and widespread rights abuses.

Following their release, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organization Against Torture said in a statement the two men were arrested on “trumped-up charges.” They also called on Indian authorities to drop all charges against them “as they are part of politically motivated proceedings aimed at discrediting their legitimate work and the JKCCS.”

The case proceedings against the two will continue in the coming weeks.

The disputed Kashmir region has suffered decades-long conflict with both India and Pakistan claiming the Himalayan region in its entirety. Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989, with many Muslim Kashmiris supporting their goal of either uniting the territory under Pakistani rule or becoming an independent country.