Umar Khalid’s parents counter charges on social media platforms

While the Delhi Police are looking for JNU student Umar Khalid, his family and friends took to the social media platforms to counter the speculative narrative spreading against him.

“The way information about my son (Khalid) is being narrated on Facebook and Twitter is wrong and biased,” a Facebook post of Khalid’s father, Syed Qasim Ilyas reads. The Delhi Police suspect that Khalid, a PhD student at JNU, organised an event on February 9 to mark the third anniversary of Afzal Guru’s execution and he has coined the idea of organising the event. His disappearance led to a certain section of the media to speculate that he was a terrorist outfit sympathiser. Other reports in media and posters outside JNU area brand Khalid as a “Kashmiri traitor”.

“First of all, Umar is not a Kashmiri. We live in Delhi hailing from the Amravati district of Maharashtra. Our family moved to Delhi almost 40 years ago and we have no connection with Kashmir so far,” a Facebook post of Khalid’s sister reads.

“He is a communist and a self-proclaimed atheist but not a terrorist,” another post of Ilyas reads. Ilyas, a social activist and an Urdu magazine editor in Delhi expressed on Facebook that he is not at all religious and that he always has disagreements on this issue.

While dismissing the allegation of his son’s visit to Pakistan, one of his posts reads: “Khalid has never visited any place outside India. The story of his several visits to Pakistan is baseless, he is not even having a passport which a basic document to travel to any country.” A former Democratic Students Union (DSU) leader Khalid resigned from his post in November 2015 along with 10 others and is now doing his PhD at JNU’s Centre for Historical Studies.

His college and university mates say he was always vocal and believed in extreme left ideology. After the February 9 event, Umar told a news channel: “I am not from Kashmir, but what is happening there is Indian occupation of Kashmir. Just like one territory is occupied by Pakistan, another territory is occupied by the Indian State. (Jawaharlal) Nehru’s words in 1947 were very clear that Kashmir will be given a plebiscite and the promise has yet not made.” According to his father, his son is not alone who says this. The same argument has been placed by many activists during public debates.

Khalid’s friends inside the JNU campus do not believe the allegations. “As far as I know Khalid, he believes in the Constitution of this country, but has his different outlook on different issues,” one of his friends on JNU campus said on the condition of anonymity. “His ideology has proved his worst enemy,” his friend added.