Over 30 civil society and rights organisations worldwide have together asked the Indian government to immediately and unconditionally free Kashmiri journalist and rights defender Irfan Mehraj, who completes three years of detention on Friday. In a joint statement, they have urged the Centre to end the “continued repression of human rights defenders and journalists in Jammu and Kashmir”. Mehraj was the founding editor of the Wande Magazine and worked with the TwoCircles.net website besides reporting for several international media organisations such as Deutsche Welle and Al Jazeera. A few weeks ago, the Human Rights Foundation and the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development had lodged a complaint on Mehraj’s behalf with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, asking it to declare his detention as arbitrary and a violation of international law. More arrests of journalists followed in recent years, although most of them were released on court orders.

Source: The Telegraph March 20, 2026 02:29 UTC