MeERAN HAIDER

Meeran, who is from India’s Muslim minority, became a prominent activist while he was a student at Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi, cofounding the Jamia Students’ Forum and leading the Rashtriya Janata Dal party’s youth wing.

In 2019, he became involved in nationwide protests against the Citizen Amendment Act, a new piece of discriminatory legislation which effectively denies Muslims from abroad the right to claim citizenship in India.

On 1 April 2020, he was arrested under FIR 59/2020 and charged with offences under India’s Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for his peaceful participation in the 2020 Delhi protests. He was accused of rioting, “promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony”, unlawful activities, terrorist acts and conspiracy, among other charges.

Currently detained in Tihar jail in Delhi, his bail was denied in April 2022.

UN human rights experts have called on the Indian government to release Meeran from detention, stating that his arrest was politically motivated and designed to silence criticism against the BJP-led government. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom considers him a prisoner of conscience.

Four years on, Meeran remains in detention without trial for his activism on religious freedom in India.

His case is part of a growing pattern of attacks against human rights defenders and religious minorities by the Indian authorities.

The South Asia Justice Campaign calls for his immediate release, as well as the release and protection of many other human rights defenders who have been targeted for exercising their right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion.