"Before his arrest Khalid had emerged as one of the faces of an anti-government protest movement after the Modi government passed a citizenship law in late 2019 that was seen as discriminatory to Muslims. The protests that erupted were the first widespread challenge to the Modi regime and were met with brute force by the state. Dozens were killed by police fire and activists were detained and tortured."
"In the months that followed, many of those who had been prominent protest organisers and voices began to be accused of acts of terror, while figures associated with Modi's Bharatiya Janata party who had made direct calls to violence in Delhi just before the riots erupted faced no action. Khalid has denied all charges, and the case against him and other Muslim activists named in the police charges has drawn scrutiny and criticism from lawy"
Umar Khalid has been detained since his September 2020 arrest under a terrorism law and remains in Tihar jail without conviction. The Delhi high court denied bail and the Supreme Court hearing was delayed. Khalid, a Muslim leftwing activist, is accused of conspiring in the February 2020 Delhi riots in which violent mobs killed 53 people, mostly Muslims, and several mosques were burned. Khalid emerged as a face of protests against the 2019 citizenship law. Many protest organisers were later accused of terrorism while some political figures who urged violence faced no action. Khalid denies all charges and the case has drawn legal and human rights scrutiny.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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