Twenty-nine Indian diaspora and international civil society organisations have released a joint statement condemning what they describe as the “enforced disappearances” and torture of student and youth activists in and around New Delhi, India’s national capital.
The statement, released on 25 July, highlights serious allegations of custodial violence and systematic disregard for India’s international human rights obligations by state authorities.
According to the joint statement, multiple student activists were allegedly “disappeared” by police forces in Delhi between 9-19 July 2025, with reports of torture, sexual threats, and complete denial of legal rights whilst in custody.
The statement details that on 9 July, three activists from the Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch – Gurkirat, Gaurav, and Gauraang – were allegedly taken without arrest warrants. Two days later, Ehtmam and Baadal from the Forum Against Corporatisation and Militarisation, which campaigns against state excesses in the Bastar region, were also reportedly disappeared.
The organisations allege that whilst in custody at New Friends Colony police station in New Delhi, the activists were “stripped naked, beaten, electrocuted, and subjected to degrading treatment including having their heads submerged in toilet bowls.” The statement further claims police issued “horrific threats of sexual violence, particularly against female activists, who were told they would be raped using rods.”
Most of the activists were reportedly released around 18 July, though another student, Rudra from Zakir Hussain College at Delhi University, allegedly disappeared on 19 July.
The signatory organisations included International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India), India Labour Solidarity (UK), South Asia Solidarity Group, Students’ Federation of India – United Kingdom, International Council of Indian Muslims (ICIM), SOAS Ambedkar Society, Hindus for Human Rights USA, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), The Humanism Project (Australia), Indian Alliance Paris (IAP), South Asian Diaspora Action Collective (SADAC), Alliance Against Islamophobia and Boston South Asian Coalition (BSAC), among others.
The statement draws connections to broader patterns of state repression, referencing a March 2025 joint statement about similar incidents targeting students who spoke out about violence in the Adivasi region of Bastar, Chhattisgarh, and the “increasing systematic exclusion of Muslims as citizens of India.”
The organisations point to what they describe as a systematic dismantling of civil society, citing National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s 2021 declaration that civil society was the “new frontier of war,” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s October 2022 statement that “every form of Naxalism, be it the one with guns or the one with pens, have to be uprooted.”
The statement argues that such “enforced disappearances,” previously associated with heavily militarised areas like Kashmir, Bastar and Manipur, are now being normalised across India, representing a “complete inversion of the rule of law.”
The organisations note multiple violations of Indian constitutional law and international human rights standards, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India is a signatory. They highlight the absence of arrest warrants, denial of legal counsel, failure to produce detainees before magistrates within the legally required 24-hour timeframe, and lack of family notification.
The groups are calling for “a full and independent investigation into the circumstances of the illegal detentions, torture and intimidation by the police in Delhi” and condemn what they describe as the “misuse of law and order protections and laws, and normalised and widespread use of surveillance, enforced disappearances, and custodial violence against its own citizens.”
The allegations come amid ongoing tensions over student activism in Indian universities, with authorities increasingly characterising dissent as “urban Naxalism” or threats to national security.
