Free Faizan Campaign

Free Faizan Campaign is campaign that demands release of Faizan Rafiq Hakeem who has been detained without charge or trial by the Jammu and Kashmir police in India since 23 February 2011. This campaign started after the international human rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) submitted a report on the boy to the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah and Indian home minister P. Chidambaram.

Amnesty Report

On 30 March 2011, Amnesty International submitted a report on the Faizan Rafiq Hakeem to the chief minister and home minister P Chidambaram. The report stated:

"Faizan Rafiq Hakeem was arrested on 7 February outside his house in Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir. He is alleged to have been part of a large crowd of protestors that pelted police and security forces with stones during protests against the state in four incidents in July 2009, June 2010, July 2010 and October 2010. He received two charges for rioting and other offences for his involvement in the incidents and was granted bail by a magistrate on February 12 for one of the charges and on February 23 for the second. He was however not released as the police decided to hold him in administrative detention – without charge or trial – under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act."

The Amnesty International demanded that the state authorities immediately end the detention without charge or trial of Faizan Rafiq Hakeem. They also demanded that if Faizan Hakeem is to be held on charges of a recognizably criminal offence, he be afforded all fair trial guarantees set out in international law.

They sought fair trial of Faizan as guaranteed by the Article 40(2) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which stipulates also that any detention shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time; such detention should be in a separate facility for children, as close as possible to his family in order to facilitate family contact.

Effect of Faizan's Arrest On His Family

Faizan Hakeem’s immediate family has been unable to meet with him since his removal to Kathua as they cannot afford the travel and accommodation costs. Faizan’s father Mohammad Rafiq Hakeem – a fruit vendor in Anantnag – told Amnesty International that since he was busy trying to seek the release of Faizan, his younger son aged approximately 14 has had to drop out of school to manage the fruit cart as the family of five has no other source of income.

Age Controversy

Police originally claimed that Faizan's age was 27, but his family showed Amnesty International a certificate provided by his school that records his date of birth as 18 May 1996 - making him less than 15 when he was arrested.

On March 28,2011, police announced that "As per radiological examination, report of X-ray of the above said person (Faizan) reveals radiological bone age between 17 to 18 years," Even though the medical tests claimed that Faizan was at least 10 years less than the age claimed by the police, the officials of the police claimed that the police has been vindicated by the medical tests as they prove that he is no minor.

Effect Of Campaign

A day after the report was released a barrage of angry tweets were sent by hundreds of micro-bloggers to Jammu and Kashmir chief minister asking reconsidering the case of Faizan Rafiq Hakeem and release Faizan. In reply to a tweet a tweet "the government puts a 14 year olds in jails through the year & then wonders Y (why) kids r (are) throwing stones through the summer" by Raheel Khusheed, a blogger, who along with dozens of youth has started a 'Free Faizan' campaign on social networking sites, Abdullah wrote ""It’s too border line a case to allow only a legal perspective to prevail. I’ll take a few days to consider all aspects and decide,"

Welcoming the initiative, noted human rights activist, Khurram Parvez said the campaign was first of its kind where Amnesty International team has focused on an individual case from Kashmir.