Twenty-nine Indian diaspora and worldwide civil society organisations have launched a joint assertion condemning what they describe because the “enforced disappearances” and torture of scholar and youth activists in and round New Delhi, India’s nationwide capital.
The assertion, launched on 25 July, highlights severe allegations of custodial violence and systematic disregard for India’s worldwide human rights obligations by state authorities.
In accordance with the joint assertion, a number of scholar activists had been allegedly “disappeared” by police forces in Delhi between 9-19 July 2025, with stories of torture, sexual threats, and full denial of authorized rights while in custody.
The assertion particulars that on 9 July, three activists from the Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch – Gurkirat, Gaurav, and Gauraang – had been allegedly taken with out arrest warrants. Two days later, Ehtmam and Baadal from the Discussion board In opposition to Corporatisation and Militarisation, which campaigns towards state excesses within the Bastar area, had been additionally reportedly disappeared.
The organisations allege that while in custody at New Pals Colony police station in New Delhi, the activists had been “stripped bare, crushed, electrocuted, and subjected to degrading therapy together with having their heads submerged in bathroom bowls.” The assertion additional claims police issued “horrific threats of sexual violence, notably towards feminine activists, who had been advised they’d be raped utilizing rods.”
Many of the activists had been reportedly launched round 18 July, although one other scholar, Rudra from Zakir Hussain School at Delhi College, allegedly disappeared on 19 July.
The signatory organisations included Worldwide Solidarity for Educational Freedom in India (InSAF India), India Labour Solidarity (UK), South Asia Solidarity Group, College students’ Federation of India – United Kingdom, Worldwide Council of Indian Muslims (ICIM), SOAS Ambedkar Society, Hindus for Human Rights USA, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), The Humanism Challenge (Australia), Indian Alliance Paris (IAP), South Asian Diaspora Motion Collective (SADAC), Alliance In opposition to Islamophobia and Boston South Asian Coalition (BSAC), amongst others.
The assertion attracts connections to broader patterns of state repression, referencing a March 2025 joint assertion about comparable incidents concentrating on college students who spoke out about violence within the Adivasi area of Bastar, Chhattisgarh, and the “rising systematic exclusion of Muslims as residents of India.”
The organisations level to what they describe as a scientific dismantling of civil society, citing Nationwide Safety Advisor Ajit Doval’s 2021 declaration that civil society was the “new frontier of struggle,” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s October 2022 assertion that “each type of Naxalism, be it the one with weapons or the one with pens, need to be uprooted.”
The assertion argues that such “enforced disappearances,” beforehand related to closely militarised areas like Kashmir, Bastar and Manipur, are actually being normalised throughout India, representing a “full inversion of the rule of regulation.”
The organisations be aware a number of violations of Indian constitutional regulation and worldwide human rights requirements, together with the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India is a signatory. They spotlight the absence of arrest warrants, denial of authorized counsel, failure to supply detainees earlier than magistrates inside the legally required 24-hour timeframe, and lack of household notification.
The teams are calling for “a full and unbiased investigation into the circumstances of the unlawful detentions, torture and intimidation by the police in Delhi” and condemn what they describe because the “misuse of regulation and order protections and legal guidelines, and normalised and widespread use of surveillance, enforced disappearances, and custodial violence towards its personal residents.”
The allegations come amid ongoing tensions over scholar activism in Indian universities, with authorities more and more characterising dissent as “city Naxalism” or threats to nationwide safety.
