January 30, 2025, marks the 1,600th day that activist Umar Khalid has spent in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. It also coincides with the 77th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination by a Hindutva extremist. More than 160 eminent personalities, in a statement, have called for immediate release of Umar Khalid and all anti-CAA activists.
“Umar and many others like him remain imprisoned under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) – denied bail, denied trial, and incarcerated for years. Not because they incited violence, but because they stood for peace, justice, and nonviolent resistance against unjust laws. This is not just about Umar Khalid,” the statement noted.
It further highlighted the plight of Gulfisha Fatima, a young student activist and MBA graduate who is spending her fifth year in prison. In a poem written from jail, she speaks of the “silent walls” surrounding her. Similarly, Khalid Saifi appears to be “punished” simply for reciting the Preamble of India’s Constitution, which upholds secularism and equality. Sharjeel Imam, arrested before Delhi 2020 riots, has been falsely accused of “terrorism.” Others, including Meeran Haider, Athar Khan, and Shifa-Ur-Rahman, have also been unjustly targeted.
The statement strongly condemned the selective persecution of those who opposed discriminatory laws, particularly if they were Muslim. It emphasised that while the 2020 Delhi riots claimed 53 lives – 38 of them Muslim – the authorities have failed to hold accountable those who instigated the violence. Instead, ‘they have criminalised peaceful protestors like Umar Khalid’.
Khalid, known for his passionate advocacy of pluralism, secularism, and constitutional values, has been falsely accused of inciting violence. One of his speeches, cited as evidence against him, explicitly called for nonviolence:
“We will not respond to violence with violence. We will not respond to hate with hate. If they spread hate, we will spread love. If they beat us with lathis, we will raise the tricolor. If they fire bullets, we will hold aloft the Constitution.”
Despite clear distortions of facts used to frame him, Khalid has been repeatedly denied bail. The High Court, in 2021, while granting bail to three co-accused, observed that the state appeared to be conflating constitutionally guaranteed protest with terrorism. The court warned that, “If this mindset gains traction, it would be a sad day for democracy.”
Yet, the state continues to wield draconian laws like UAPA, making bail nearly impossible and turning pretrial detention into a form of punishment. The prolonged incarceration of young intellectuals and activists without trial is deeply disturbing.
“We, the undersigned, are appalled at how an authoritarian regime has vilified and imprisoned a bright, compassionate historian and critical thinker like Umar Khalid. We stand in solidarity with him and other Equal Citizenship activists. They must be freed so they can continue working toward a just and equal future,” the statement concluded.
