All About Ashoka University Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad Arrested For Remark On Operation Sindoor Press Briefing
Sonipat, Haryana: Police arrested Ashoka University Associate Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad on Sunday, May 18 for his comments regarding the press briefings by Col. Sofia Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh on Operation Sindoor.
The arrest was made reportedly based on a complaint by Yogesh Jatheri, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s youth wing, under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to acts prejudicial to maintaining communal harmony, making assertions likely to cause disharmony, inciting secession, armed rebellion or subversive activities, and insulting religious beliefs.
After the arrest earlier Sunday, Mahmudabad has been remanded to police custody until May 20 (Tuesday) in the case as per an update by Bar and Bench.
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Police took the lecturer, also the head of the university’s political science department, into custody from his home in Delhi this morning, and he is currently at the Rai police station. Faculty members of the university and activists gathered at the police station seeking clarity on the arrest, student newspaper The Edict reported.
The University reacted to the arrest reports stating that it was aware that Mahmudabad was taken into police custody earlier in the day. “We are in the process of ascertaining details of the case,” it said, adding that university will continue to cooperate with the police and local authorities in the investigation, fully.
Earlier, Haryana State Commission for Women had sent a notice to the associate professor over his Operation Sindoor remarks, noting that the panel has taken suo motu cognizance of the public statements/remarks made on or about May 7 by the professor.
On May 8, Mahmudabad made the purported remark about right-wing Hindutva commentators praising Colonel Sofia Qureshi, who had represented the Army during media briefings about Indian military operations against terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as a response to April 22 Pahalgam attack.
The associate professor, in a social media post that triggered the Rightwing complaint against him, pointed out, “Perhaps they could also equally loudly demand that the victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hate-mongering be protected as Indian citizens,” referring to the increasing anti-Muslim hatred in the country.
The professor had also called the media briefings by Col. Sofia Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh as optics, adding, “optics must translate to reality on the ground, otherwise it’s just hypocrisy.”
The Haryana State Women Commission, raised concerns about the disparagement of “women in uniform, including Col. Qureshi and Wing Commander Singh, as professional officers in India,” and accused the associate professor of attempting to vilify national military actions. The panel sought an explanation from him in the form of an affidavit. The Professor, however, made it clear that his entire comments were about safeguarding the lives of both citizens and soldiers, while underlining that there was “nothing remotely misogynistic about my comments that could be construed as anti-women.”
He said he only exercised his fundamental right to freedom of speech in order to promote peace and harmony, while pointing out that the commission “completely misunderstood” his remarks. A PhD holder from University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, he had previously studied at the University of Damascus in Syria and the Amherst College in the United States.
