Umar Khalid

Syed Umar Khalid (born 11 August 1987) is a former student leader and research scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, he rose to prominence when Delhi Police detained him in 2016, over the JNU sedition row. In 2017, he started the United Against Hate campaign with Nadeem Khan and others, in response to a series of hate crimes in north Indian states. In 2018, a cow vigilante group attempted to assassinate him. Between the winter of 2019 and 2020, he participated in nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Khalid has been detained several times. In February 2016, he was arrested by the Delhi Police for his alleged involvement in the JNU sedition row, in which anti-India slogans were allegedly raised by unidentified individuals following a protest organized against the capital punishment execution of the 2001 Indian Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Pro-BJP news channels aired several videos as evidence, which were later identifed as doctored. He was subsequently released on bail. Khalid was re-arrested in September 2020 for his alleged involvement in a "larger conspiracy" in the 2020 Delhi riots. According to legal commentators, the police evidence against him is weak and inconsistent. He has since been held in Tihar Jail and has repeatedly been denied bail, while his trial has yet to begin. In January 2026, the Supreme Court of India acknowledged the delay in the trial but denied him bail, citing the seriousness of the charges.