Explained: This article explains the political background, key decisions, and possible outcomes related to Explained : After India Backs Palestinian State, PDP Urges Centre to Drop Cases Against Kashmiri Youth and Its Impact and why it matters right now.
India recently reaffirmed support for a ‘sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine’, prompting a PDP MLA to urge the Union government to withdraw police cases against Kashmiri youngsters who participated in pro-Palestine protests.
New Delhi: Against the backdrop of the just-concluded India-Arab foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi, the People Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday (February 6) urged the Union government to withdraw police cases filed against Kashmiri youngsters who had participated in pro-Palestine protests.
The second India-Arab Foreign Ministers meet took place in the national capital on January 31 during which New Delhi extended support to the formation of a “sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine” in accordance with United Nations resolutions. At the end of the meeting, the two sides issued a ‘Delhi Declaration’, a statement affirming their commitment to “achieving a just, comprehensive and lasting peace” in the region.
In a letter on Friday, PDP legislator Muntazir Mehdi reminded Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is in Jammu and Kashmir on an official visit, that India has “consistently supported the Palestinian cause on diplomatic and humanitarian grounds”.
He wrote that filing police cases against youngsters for “peaceful expression” of support for Palestine “risks fostering alienation and undermines the spirit of democratic freedom enshrined in our constitution”. He urged Shah to issue directions to Jammu and Kashmir police to withdraw these cases.
“At a time when confidence-building, trust and constructive engagement with the youth of Jammu and Kashmir are of paramount importance, such measures may inadvertently convey a sense of inconsistency and injustice,” Mehdi wrote to the home minister.
Mehdi, who was elected in the recent by-polls from central Kashmir’s Budgam constituency, added, “Such a step would send a powerful message of reassurance, uphold democratic values, and reinforce faith in the fairness and uniformity of the rule of law.”
Mehdi told The Wire that there are at least two to three more FIRs under which more than 100 people in the jurisdictions of Magam, Beerwah and Sumbal police stations have been slapped with sedition charges for staging protests in favour of Palestine.
The Israel-Hamas war and the Gaza crisis triggered a wave of pro-Palestine protests across the world and in India, with many groups and individuals expressing solidarity with Palestinians and anger over civilian deaths in Gaza.
Under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, police in the Union Territory report to the home ministry (Union gvernment), which also holds charge of officers in the central services, IAS and IPS, officers in higher levels of the bureaucracy, prosecution staff and several other wings of government running the administration in the erstwhile state.
Shah’s three-day visit to the Jammu region started on Thursday and coincided with the killing of three suspected militants in two operations in violence-affected Udhampur and Kishtwar districts where militancy has been on an uptick in recent months.
A number of incidents have been reported from Kashmir in the years since the reading down of Article 370 in which police have filed criminal charges against youngsters for participating in pro-Palestine and anti-Israel demonstrations.
In some cases, the police have also invoked the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 (UAPA), against the alleged offenders.
Defending its actions, Jammu and Kashmir police have previously said that there are “elements who are attempting to leverage the ongoing crisis in Palestine to disturb peace and order” in Kashmir while admitting that it was keeping a watch on social media posts in the valley regarding Palestine.
Last year, on the eve of Quds Day on March 28, the police registered a case under UAPA (FIR No. 49/2025) at Pattan Police Station after anti-Israel and pro-Palestine protests were held in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
A police spokesperson had said that some protesters raised slogans in favour of the slain Hezbollah commander Hassan Nasrallah that were “aimed at inciting the public and encouraging elements associated with terrorism to engage in subversive activities and to revive terrorist activities within the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir”.
On July 18, 2024, several mourners were arrested for raising pro-Palestine slogans during a Muharram procession in the capital Srinagar. They were later charged under provisions of the stringent anti-terror law, punishable with imprisonment for up to seven years.
Ever since Article 370 has been read down, the UAPA has been repeatedly invoked, including against hundreds of Kashmiri civilians, journalists, advocates and political activists. Some of them have had their charges quashed by the high court, which has often reprimanded the government for using the draconian legislation “without application of mind”.
This article went live on February sixth, two thousand twenty six, at twenty-eight minutes past six in the evening.
The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.