The News Craving
Newscraving Desk:
Srinagar,
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested prominent human rights activist Khurram Parvez, media reports said.
Several media reports said that he was arrested after raids at his residence in earlier in the day.
Parvez has reportedly been booked under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and faces other multiple charges.
Earlier NIA officials carried out searches at the residence of Parvez at Sonwar area and his office at Amira Kadal.
Several media reports quoted NIA officials confirming the arrest. Top separatist leaders including Nayeem Khan, Shabi Shah and Farooq Ahmad Dar are lodged in Tihar jail and are facing charges for fanning separatist activities in Kashmir. Their arrest had come following the 2016 agitation over the killing of HM militant commander Burhan Muzafar Wani.
NIA has registered multiple cases in Kashmir including a one against “certain NGOs, Trusts and Societies, registered as well as un-registered” for “collecting funds domestically and abroad through donations, business contributions in the name of charity and various welfare activities such as public health, education etc.”
In a statement released earlier NIA said that some of these NGOs have links with militant organizations such as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM).
Chairman of International Forum for Justice Human Rights JK, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, said that Khurram’s arrest was reflective of the growing crackdown in Kashmir. ” Anyone who suffers in a conflict, the job of the human rights campaigner is to ensure that no-one enjoys any impunity.”
Untoo said that arrest has come at a time when the bodies of civilians were denied to the families. Reiterating his demand for return of the bodies of all the persons who have been killed since March 2020 in Jammu and Kashmir, Untoo also demanded an end to the abuses. He said that denying the bodies to the legal heirs was a ” human rights violation as well.”