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LONDON: British Musician Roger Waters has called out Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the arrest of Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
The British musician, while responding to a Twitterati demanding the activist’s release, wrote on his handle “Hey Modi, leave Khurram alone!”
Hey Modi leave Khurram alone! https://t.co/JD89Ju8C7L
— Roger Waters (@rogerwaters) December 23, 2021
This isn’t the first time that Rogers called out the Modi-led Indian government for its actions. In a video shared by Prime Minister Imran Khan in Feb 2020, the musician spoke out against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act introduced by the Indian government at a London protest demanding the release of Julian Assange.
When musicians who have all their lives rallied for peace, start taking notice of the massacres in India, it is time the world must stand up and take notice. Stand up on the right side of history. pic.twitter.com/WdYv4YBSmT
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) February 27, 2020
Roger Waters read out an English translation of Aamir Aziz’s Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega, introducing him as “a young poet and activist in Delhi involved in the fight against Modi and his fascist and racist Citizenship law.”
Who is Khurram Parvez?
Parvez is the programme coordinator for a widely respected rights group in the occupied territory, the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, and chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances.
He was arrested last month by India’s federal National Investigation Agency (NIA) on terrorism funding charges. According to his wife, officials also confiscated Parvez’s mobile phone, laptop, some books and also her cellphone.
The office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had expressed concerns over his arrest. “We are deeply concerned at the arrest of Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez under Indian counter-terrorism legislation, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA),” it said in a statement.
Parvez was arrested and detained on similar charges in 2016, after being prevented from boarding a flight to attend a UN human rights forum in Geneva. He was eventually released without being convicted of any crime.
