HRF condemns the arrest of Umar Khalid

The Human Rights Forum (HRF) on Monday condemned the arrest of activist and former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid late on Sunday night by the Delhi Police Special Cell.

He has been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for his alleged involvement in the violence and rioting in North East Delhi during February this year. The HRF alleged that the charges against Umar Khalid was fabricated.

V.S. Krishna of HRF said that over last several months, the Delhi police have been relentlessly targeting and incarcerating anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) activists, most of them young, under bogus charges.

While organisations and individuals working for communal harmony are being vilified and booked in false cases, the real instigators and conspirators of the brutal violence this February continue to roam scot-free, he said.

HRF demands that Umar Khalid and all anti-CAA activists arrested by the Delhi police be set free immediately and the farcical charges against them be dropped, said Mr. Krishna.