On August 18, 2025, Aligarh police arrested student leader Talha Mannan, along with at least eight unidentified students, for chanting pro-Palestine slogans during a protest at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

On August 12, 2025, AMU students began demonstrating against a 30-40% fee hike and demanding the reinstatement of the Students’ Union to ensure better representation. Mannan, an alumnus of AMU and a PhD candidate at Maulana Azad National University, joined the protest wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh. Asserting that the fee hike and police presence were attempts to “change the character of the university,” Mannan chanted pro-Palestine slogans, framing them as an expression of global solidarity against injustice.

Police filed a First Information Report (FIR) on August 18, 2025, charging Mannan and others with “disobedience of an order duly promulgated by a public servant” and making “statements conducing to public mischief.” The complaint alleged that by raising “provocative slogans” in support of Palestine, Mannan had disturbed “public peace and order.”

Scholars at Risk is concerned about the detention of students in an effort to restrict the nonviolent exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly — conduct that is expressly protected by international human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India is a party. State authorities have a responsibility to refrain from restricting nonviolent expression or assembly. In addition to the harm to the immediate victims, such incidents undermine academic freedom and democratic society generally.

Sources:
https://maktoobmedia.com/india/student-leader-talha-mannan-booked-for-pro-palestine-slogans-during-amu-protest/
https://www.deccanchronicle.com/southern-states/telangana/student-leader-booked-for-pro-palestine-slogans-1899088
https://dishastudents.org/archives/872