Kashmir activist and journalist released on bail in India, relatives say

Authorities in New Delhi have released Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez and journalist Irfan Mehraj on bail years after their arrests on terrorism-related charges, their families said.

Parvez, programme coordinator for the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, was arrested in 2021 by India's National Investigation Agency at his home in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir. Mehraj, a freelance journalist who was also associated with the same rights group, was arrested in 2023.

Both men face charges of funding terrorism and propagating a secessionist agenda under India's anti-terror laws. Their relatives said they were released from a New Delhi prison late Wednesday and asked not to be named.

Their bail conditions limit their movement. The National Investigation Agency appealed the bail decision, but a higher court upheld it. According to a court document cited in the report, Parvez and Mehraj must arrange to stay in the capital, where they are facing trial, and cannot travel to Kashmir.

The Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society has for decades reported alleged rights violations by Indian government forces, including torture and unlawful killings. The group has also raised concerns about thousands of unmarked graves in border areas that it suspects may contain the remains of some victims of enforced disappearances.

Rights groups around the world have called for Parvez's release. In 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said his arrest was a reprisal for his human rights work and an attempt to silence him and Kashmiri civil society.

Several journalists in Indian-administered Kashmir say they have faced harassment and arrests since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government annulled the region's partial autonomy in 2019. Government figures say more than 3,600 people were arrested there under anti-terror laws between 2019 and 2023, with more than half still in prison.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since independence from British rule in 1947. Both countries claim the Himalayan territory in full. Rebel groups have fought an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians.