Ashoka University students demand professor’s release, call arrest ‘wrongful’

A day after Ashoka University Associate Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad was arrested, his students described the action as “wrongful” and demanded his release.

Mahmudabad, the head of Ashoka University’s political science department, was on Sunday remanded to police custody for two days for his comments about the press briefings on Operation Sindoor.

In a statement shared on social media by Arpita Das, who also teaches at the university, the students from Mahmudabad’s course – Banish the Poets – said his arrest violated “not just academic freedom, but…very principles he taught us and stands for”.

@Mahmudabad's students this semester have written a beautiful and strong message in solidarity with their beloved professor. The class was called Banish the Poets. Have a read!
Faculty and students, we all stand in solidarity with him. pic.twitter.com/lUzU29JOnk— Arpita Das (she/her) (@arpitayodapress) May 19, 2025

The students stated that Mahmudabad “never expressed any disrespect for the nation or the Constitution, nor did he ever teach us such disrespect”.

Throughout the course, “professor Khan lectured on love, consistently emphasising secular values such as reason, compassion, justice, and freedom of thought as the foundation of meaningful dialogue”, they added.

Demanding his release, the students said the university should stand by him, “for him and the ideals he embodies, we harbour hope”.

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