US Lawmakers Write to Indian Ambassador Expressing Concern Over Umar Khalid's Prolonged Detention
New Delhi: A group of US lawmakers have expressed their concern over the prolonged pre-trial detention of student activist and scholar Umar Khalid and have written to Vinay Mohan Kwatra , the Indian Ambassador in Washington, over the issue.
Urging that Khalid be granted bail, in their letter, the Members of the US Congress and the US Senate said that Khalid’s confinement in jail for almost five years “raises serious questions about due process, human rights and India’s obligations under international law”, reported The Tribune.
The leaders who have signed the letter include senior Democratic leaders, including Congressman James P. McGovern and Jamie Raskin, Senators Chris Van Hollen and Peter Welch, and Congress members Pramila Jayapal, Jan Schakowsky, Rashida Tlaib and Lloyd Doggett.
The signatories have placed their concerns within the framework of the India-US strategic partnership and said that the world’s largest democracies, the two countries shared a common responsibility to uphold freedom, rule of law, human rights and pluralism.
“It is in this spirit that we raise the following concerns,” states the letter.
The lawmakers noted that the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) passed in late-2019, which gradually led to the arrest of Khalid were described by a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as “fundamentally discriminatory”.
The letter added that the fairness of the investigations and trials have been consistently questioned by rights organisations, legal experts and the international media, reported The Tribune.
The lawmakers said that pressing terrorism charges against Khalid is based on “secret witnesses and misconstrued speech”, and also highlighted the fact that independent rights investigations didn’t find any evidence linking him to terror activity.
Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia has cautioned the New York City mayor over this letter to Khalid, saying "If India's sovereignty is challenged, 140 crore Indians will stand united under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership."
On December 11, a Delhi court had granted interim bail to Khalid for two weeks for attending his sister’s wedding. Khalid, along with Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima and Meeran Haider, have been jailed for over five years under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) over charges in connection to the ‘larger conspiracy’ case of the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.
Note: BJP's letter to Zohram Mamdani has been added to this report since publication.
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