A professor from an elite, private liberal-arts university in India has been arrested for a social media post about news briefings on the military operation against Pakistan more than a week after the two nuclear-armed neighbours agreed to a ceasefire, according to local media reports.
Ali Khan Mahmudabad, an associate professor with the Department of Political Science at Ashoka University, was arrested on Sunday under sections of the criminal code pertaining to acts prejudicial to maintaining communal harmony, incitement of armed rebellion or subversive activities, and insults of religious beliefs.
A police official told the Indian Express newspaper that Mahmudabad, 42, was arrested in the capital, New Delhi, 60km (37 miles) south of the university, located in Sonepat in Haryana state.
A report by the online publication Scroll.in on Sunday quoted Mahmudabad’s lawyer as saying the case against him was filed on Saturday based on a complaint by Yogesh Jatheri, general secretary of the youth wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Haryana.
The arrest was made days after the Haryana State Commission for Women summoned Mahmudabad for his comments on the daily briefings on India’s military operation in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh from the Indian armed forces held media briefings on Operation Sindoor, launched on May 6.
In a Facebook post on May 8, Mahmudabad had said: “I am very happy to see so many right wing commentators applauding Colonel Sophia Qureishi but perhaps they could also equally loudly demand that the victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the BJP’s hate mongering be protected as Indian citizens.
“The optics of two women soldiers presenting their findings is importantly but optics must translate to reality on the ground otherwise it’s just hypocrisy.”
The post referred to Qureishi, a Muslim officer in the Indian army, and attacks against Muslims, including lynchings and destruction of their houses without due process.
According to local media reports, the Haryana Women’s Commission on Monday said the professor’s statement “disparaged women officers in the Indian Armed Forces and promoted communal disharmony” and summoned him.
Mahmudabad has defended his comments and said on X that they had been misunderstood.
“If anything, my entire comments were about safeguarding the lives of both citizens and soldiers. Furthermore, there is nothing remotely misogynistic about my comments that could be construed as anti-women,” he said.
In February last year, the human rights group Amnesty International urged the government to stop “unjust targeted demolition of Muslim properties”.
“The unlawful demolition of Muslim properties by the Indian authorities, peddled as ‘bulldozer justice’ by political leaders and media, is cruel and appalling. Such displacement and dispossession is deeply unjust, unlawful and discriminatory. They are destroying families – and must stop immediately,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general.
“The authorities have repeatedly undermined the rule of law, destroying homes, businesses or places of worship, through targeted campaigns of hate, harassment, violence and the weaponization of JCB bulldozers. These human rights abuses must be urgently addressed,” she said in a statement.
India’s Supreme Court has ordered a halt to so-called bulldozer justice, but that has not stopped authorities from disregarding due process.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the BJP has also been accused of allowing far-right Hindu vigilante groups to act with impunity. They have lynched Muslims and tried to police interfaith relations. Modi has spoken against cow vigilante killings, but his government has done little to stop the activities of vigilante groups.
My statement re the summons that I received from the Haryana State Women’s Commission.
The posts that were misunderstood and objected to can be accessed on my Facebook page. pic.twitter.com/U4rZrAXhFx
— Ali Khan Mahmudabad (@Mahmudabad) May 14, 2025
Professors and activists across the country have shown their support for Mahmudabad.
An open letter with about 1,200 signatories released on Friday said: “It is clear that Prof Khan praised the strategic restraint of the armed forces, analysed how any distinction between the terrorists or non-state actors and the Pakistani military has now collapsed, and said that the optics of the women officers chosen for media debriefs was ‘important’ as proof that the secular vision of the founders of our Republic is still alive.”
The truce between India and Pakistan, announced on May 10, halted several days of missile and drone attacks across their shared border. Pakistan said at least 31 people were killed in India’s strikes while India said at least 15 people were killed in Pakistan’s counterattacks.
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