The JNU scholar and student activist, arrested for his alleged role in the 2020 Delhi riots, languishes in jail without trial; several bail pleas not entertained
NEW DELHI – The spirit of student activist Umar Khalid remains unbroken despite prolonged incarceration, and he has no regrets, his father claimed here on Friday. “I want to tell you that Umar has no regrets, nor have the years in jail broken his spirit,” said Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas at an event organised by the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) to mark five years of Umar Khalid’s arrest.
“I assure you that once they are out, they will not sit at home, but will continue their fight,” he said referring to all the Muslim activists languishing in jail for varied periods over their alleged role in the 2020 Delhi riots.
The JNUSU’s “freedom march” from Ganga Dhaba to Sabarmati Dhaba on the university campus, expressed solidarity with Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid, and others imprisoned activists. The march was held a day after the Supreme Court adjourned by a week the hearing on their bail pleas.
The protest drew participation from several relatives of the accused, including Khalid’s father. Placards and slogans at the march highlighted what students described as the prolonged and unjust incarceration of those charged under conspiracy allegations linked to the 2020 communal violence.
“More than five years have passed since Umar, Sharjeel, Meeran, Gulfisha, and others have been wrongfully incarcerated by the BJP-RSS regime. Yet again, their bail pleas have been rejected,” media reports cited a JNUSU statement as saying. The union also demanded their immediate release and accused the government of suppressing dissent.
Thirty-five-year-old Umar Khalid completed five years in Delhi’s Tihar jail on Saturday (September 13), without a trial. Khalid, who has a PhD from JNU, was arrested on September 13, 2020, under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots. He faces charges that include rioting, murder, sedition, terrorist acts and others under UAPA.
The Delhi police alleged that Khalid was one of the “masterminds” of the February riots. The violence erupted during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens in India (NRC).
Recently, the Delhi High Court rejected bail pleas of Khalid and several others, including Sharjeel Imam, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Abdul Khalid Saifi, Gulfisha Fatima and Shadab Ahmed, bail pleas, saying “conspiratorial” violence under the garb of demonstrations or protests by citizens couldn’t be allowed.
Khalid has moved to the Supreme Court since.
A 2020 article by The Wire explains Kahlid’s incarceration as a “symbol of resistance” for Muslims in a fast-emerging Hindutva land.
He represented a young, fearless, educated, socially aware Indian Muslim, something that the saffron party has unfailingly worked against.
“Picking on Khalid and others serves to represent anti-CAA protests as being purely led by Muslims, rather than acknowledge them as the broad, diverse India-wide phenomenon that they were, comprising of people from all faiths and in several regions. Once you portray a movement as mostly Muslim-led (and involving “radical” leftists), it becomes easier to repress it and prevents others from joining it,” the article read.
