Harassment of human rights defenders now alarmingly commonplace in India: Amnesty on Zubair’s arrest
Amnesty International, India on Tuesday said that Harassment and arbitrary arrests of human rights defenders for tirelessly seeking truth and justice have become alarmingly commonplace in India. The organisation demanded for an immediate unconditional release of fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair.
Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police on Monday night for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity on Twitter.
Chair of board for Amnesty International India, Aakar Patel, said the Indian authorities are targeting Zubair for his crucial work to combat the rise in fake news and disinformation and call out discrimination against minorities.
“The arrest of Mohammed Zubair shows the danger facing human rights defenders in India has reached a crisis point.” “The fact that he was not provided a copy of the First Information Report (FIR) and was detained incommunicado during the initial hours following his arrest shows just how brazen the Indian authorities have become,” Patel said in a statement.
Calling on the Delhi Police to immediately and unconditionally release Zubair and end its “relentless harassment” of journalists, human rights defenders and activists, Patel said the Alt News co-founder’s arrest is a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression, abuse of power by the authorities and sends a message that dissent is not tolerated in the country.
Alt News’ Co-founder, Pratik Sinha alleged that the police did not give any prior notice to the arrested, even though it is mandatory for the sections under which he has been arrested.
Zubair was arrested in connection with one of his recent tweets that had a questionable image with the purpose of deliberately insulting the god of a particular religion, according to police.
