Rights bodies urge India to immediately release Modi critic

Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Tuesday called upon the Indian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release journalist Mohammed Zubair and urged the country to stop its relentless harassment of journalists, human rights defenders and activists.

Mohammed Zubair was detained on Monday after being questioned by police, before a Delhi court ordered he be held for four more days for further interrogation.

Zubair had played a role in drawing attention to incendiary remarks about Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) recently made by a spokesperson for Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that sparked widespread protests across the Islamic world.

“His arrest is a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression, abuse of power by the authorities and sends a message that dissent is not tolerated in the country,” Aakar Patel, chair of the board for Amnesty International India, said in a press statement.

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Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of ALT News, an independent fact-checking website was arrested by the Delhi Police late on Monday night for allegedly ‘hurting religious sentiments’ and  ‘promoting enmity with his satirical tweets criticising the rising censorship and calling out discrimination against minorities during the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Pratik Sinha, another co-founder of ALT News who was present at the police station with him tweeted that they had not been given a copy of the FIR and the Delhi police were taking Zubair to an undisclosed location.

‘Another low for press freedom in India’

Meanwhile, President of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Jodie Ginsberg, on her Twitter handle, said that the arrest of journalist Mohammad Zubair marked another low for press freedom in India, where the government had created a hostile and unsafe environment for members of the press reporting on sectarian issues.”

“The Indian authorities are targeting Mohammed Zubair for his crucial work combatting the rise in fake news and disinformation and calling out discrimination against minorities.”

She said the showed the danger facing human rights defenders in India has reached a crisis point.