Activist Umar Khalid wins international human rights defender award

Activist Umar Khalid, who has been in prison for more than six years in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case, won the 2026 Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk on Thursday.

The award is given out by the Ireland-based human rights organisation Front Line Defenders. It was presented at a ceremony in Dublin, which Khalid could not attend.

He was arrested on September 13, 2020, and has remained in jail since then without trial.

The other recipients of this year’s award are Ahmadreza Haeri, an anti-death penalty campaigner from Iran, Laurinda Manuel Gouveia, a feminist pro-participatory democracy defender from Angola, Adda Vyctoria Caetano, a Black trans woman leader from Brazil, and Ljiljana Nešić, a feminist peacebuilder from Serbia.

The police had arrested Khalid in connection with the communal violence that broke out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence had left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Most of those killed were Muslims.

Khalid, activist Sharjeel Imam and the others accused in the matter have been charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the Arms Act and sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The police have claimed that the violence...

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