Over 50 civil rights activists in Ranchi staged a protest on Tuesday against the alleged harassment of rights activist Nadeem Khan and fact-checker Mohammed Zubair by the “BJP government”.

Activists carried placards and shouted slogans to express their solidarity with Nadeem Khan and Mohammed Zubair and accused the BJP-led Centre and its government in other states for harassing rights activists who “exposed” the hate campaign by “Hindutva” organisations.

The protest was organised jointly by several human rights organisations near Albert Ekka Chowk in Ranchi at around 3pm as part of a nationwide campaign #FightingHateDefendingDemocracy campaign, which runs between December 9-15.

Last month, Delhi police had registered an FIR against human rights activist Nadeem Khan, who has been the national secretary of the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), on charges of promoting enmity and criminal conspiracy after a video was uploaded on social media, that police claimed caused unrest among locals.

The FIR said, the video showed a person who had set up a stall at an exhibition and was standing in front of multiple display boards. He was gesturing towards a banner and talking about “Nadeem, Akhlaq, Rohit Vemula, Pehlu Khan”, and the 2020 CAA/NRC protests in Shaheen Bagh and the Delhi riots, portraying a particular community as victims and inciting people, the FIR stated.

Delhi High Court on Tuesday, while granting interim protection to Nadeem Khan, had slammed the Delhi police for the charges in the FIR.

Alt News co-founder and fact-checker Mohammed Zubair had also been charged by Ghaziabad police last month in a criminal case over his social media post in which he shared a clipping of a provocative speech by controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand.

“Both Nadeem Khan and Mohammed Zubair have been booked in fake cases by the BJP governments. Both have played a vital role in exposing cases of lynching, hate speeches and communal violence, and providing legal aid to the victims. Zubair has also exposed the communal propaganda of the Modi-led BJP government,” said Elina Horo, a protester.

Horo alleged: “On November 29, APCR filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court against the police violence against Muslims in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, and on the other hand, the Modi government’s Delhi Police on November 30 filed an FIR against Nadeem and APCR in a fake case and tried to arrest them. Zubair objected to the hate speech of Hindutva leader Yeti Narsinghanand, but the Uttar Pradesh police instead filed an FIR against him for spreading hatred between religious groups and endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.”

The protesters demanded that “fake FIRs” against Nadeem Khan and Mohammed Zubair should be withdrawn. They also demanded that police, administration and judiciary should respect their constitutional dignity and not become a part of the Hindutva agenda of the BJP and the RSS.