India: CASR Condemns Repression Against the Activist Pranab Dolley
We hereby share a press statement issued by the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) on the 1st of August.
PRESS STATEMENT
Date: 1 August, 2026
CASR STRONGLY CONDEMNS THE INVOCATION OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY ACT (NSA) AGAINST INDIGENOUS LAND RIGHTS ACTIVIST PRANAB DOLEY
The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) strongly condemns the invocation of the National Security Act (NSA) against Pranab Doley, an Indigenous land rights activist from Assam. The use of preventive detention laws against a democratic activist defending the rights of Indigenous communities represents a dangerous escalation in the state’s assault on democratic dissent.
Pranab Doley has consistently raised his voice to protect the land, forests, livelihoods, and constitutional rights of Indigenous communities. Instead of addressing the legitimate concerns of local people, the authorities have chosen to silence him through arbitrary detention and the misuse of one of the country’s most draconian laws.
The NSA allows detention without trial for extended periods and has repeatedly been criticised for violating the fundamental principles of due process, liberty, and natural justice. Its use against democratic activists reflects an alarming trend of employing extraordinary security laws to suppress legitimate political dissent and people’s movements.
The targeting of Pranab Doley cannot be viewed in isolation. Across the country, activists, journalists, students, trade unionists, and human rights defenders are increasingly being prosecuted under laws such as the NSA, UAPA, and other extraordinary legislations for peacefully organising, protesting, and defending the rights of marginalised communities. The growing criminalisation of democratic movements poses a serious threat to constitutional democracy.
The targeting of Pranab Doley is part of a nationwide pattern of repression against Indigenous, Adivasi, and people’s movements resisting land dispossession, mining, and corporate exploitation. Across India, activists defending Jal, Jungle, and Jameen have increasingly been subjected to fabricated criminal cases, prolonged incarceration, preventive detention, and other forms of state repression. Human rights defenders and grassroots leaders such as Suneeta Pottam, Raghu Midiyami, Lingraj Azad, Sarju, and many others have faced criminalisation and persecution for standing with Indigenous communities resisting displacement, extractive mining projects, and corporate plunder of natural resources. Rather than protecting the constitutional and legal rights of these communities, the state has repeatedly chosen to suppress democratic resistance through draconian laws, coercive policing, and the misuse of investigative agencies. The invocation of the NSA against Pranab Doley must therefore be understood as part of this broader strategy to silence those who defend the rights of Indigenous peoples and resist the dispossession of their ancestral lands.
The continued use of preventive detention laws like the NSA undermines the constitutional guarantees freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a), and the right to peacefully assemble and organise guaranteed under the Constitution of India.
CASR Demands
– Immediately revoke the National Security Act (NSA) invoked against Pranab Doley.
– Release Pranab Doley immediately and unconditionally.
– Protect the rights of Indigenous communities defending their land, forests, and livelihoods.
– Ensure that democratic movements and peaceful protests are not criminalised.
– Repeal draconian laws such as the NSA, UAPA, and other repressive legislations routinely used to suppress democratic dissent.
CASR stands in unwavering solidarity with Pranab Doley, his family, and all Indigenous communities resisting dispossession and state repression. We call upon democratic rights organisations, trade unions, student movements, civil liberties groups, lawyers, journalists, writers, artists, and all concerned citizens to raise their voices against the misuse of the NSA and defend the constitutional rights of all those struggling for justice, dignity, and democratic freedoms.
CAMPAIGN AGAINST STATE REPRESSION (CASR)
Organising Team:
(AIRSO, APCR, ASA, BASF, BSM, Bhim Army, bsCEM, CEM, COLLECTIVE, CRPP, CSM, CTF, DISSC, DSU, DTF, Forum Against Repression Telangana, Fraternity, IAPL, Innocence Network, Karnataka Janashakti, LAA, Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan, Mazdoor Patrika, NAPM, Nazariya Magazine, Nishant Natya Manch, Nowruz, NTUI, People’s Watch, Rihai Manch, Samajwadi Janparishad, Samajwadi Lok Manch, Bahujan Samajwadi Manch, United Peace Alliance, WSS, Y4S)
