Mumbai Police personnel allegedly detained three pro-Palestine activists and searched the home of a woman volunteer without a warrant over their participation in a kite-flying campaign held in solidarity with Palestinian children, Indian People in Solidarity with Palestine (IPSP) said in a statement.
According to IPSP, the activists in Mumbai had recently participated in the Global Gaza Kite Weekend, an international campaign expressing solidarity with children in Gaza.
The group alleged that people in plain clothes who identified themselves as police officials entered the residence of an IPSP volunteer named Harshada, intimidated her and forcibly detained her.
Uniformed police personnel later returned and searched her home without producing a warrant, written notice or any other document authorising the search, the statement alleged. The police also confiscated some of her belongings, according to IPSP.
Two other volunteers who participated in the Gaza kite campaign were also detained and interrogated by Mumbai Police, the group said.
In an update issued at 2.15 a.m., IPSP said police personnel remained at Harshada’s residence more than nine hours after the search began.
“More than 9 hours — and counting — for ‘searching’ a person’s place of residence without a warrant merely for flying kites in solidarity with Palestinian children!” the group said.
IPSP described the alleged police action as an assault on democratic rights and civil liberties and a violation of Harshada’s right to privacy.
“A child flying a kite is a threat to the Israeli state, and youngsters flying kites in solidarity with the children of Gaza are a threat to the Indian state,” the statement read.
The group accused the BJP-led Union government of double standards over Palestine, contrasting India’s stated support for Palestinian freedom at the BRICS summit with what it described as repeated action against pro-Palestine activists in the country.
IPSP alleged that such actions revealed the Indian government’s alignment with Israel and the United States despite its public expression of humanitarian concern for Palestinians.
