UN experts urge India to release rights activist in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India – A group of United Nations experts has called on the Indian government to immediately release human rights activist Khurram Parvez, arrested last month in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir under a controversial security law.

The U.N. experts said in a statement issued in Geneva on Wednesday that they have received allegations that the law is often used to target human rights defenders. Parvez is the coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society and chairman of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances.

Indian authorities charged Parvez under the Public Safety Act, which allows detentions of up to six months without trial.

The statement was issued by the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and several U.N. special rapporteurs.