About the Human Rights Defender: Mr. Manish Sharma (45) is a well-known human rights activist of Uttar Pradesh working for civil rights and human rights in Varanasi for the last 20 years. He has been peacefully active in various pro-poor mass movements such as the successful Banaras weavers’ movement, the green belt movement etc. Details of the Incident: On May 15, 2023, at around 03:00 pm, Mr. Manish Sharma was going home on his bike when suddenly 8-10 people in civil dress surrounded his bike near the Court, snatched his mobile and forced him in their car. They forced him to go with them in the car to the ATS office, Pandaya Nagar, where he found out that they were policemen from the Anti-Terrorism Squad of the UP Police. They had neither any summons or warrant for Mr. Sharma’s interrogation, nor did they inform his family despite his repeated requests to inform them. Mr. Sharma was mentally harassed for 6 hours and repeatedly questioned about his participation in various people’s democratic movements and was told to back off from any rights-based movements. He was also threatened that if he continued to be involved in mass movements then he would be framed in fake cases of terrorism and sent to jail for years. Some local activists gathered at ATS office, Pandaya Nagar, Banaras, and started demanding his release raising slogans and the news went viral on the social media. At around 10:30pm Mr. Manish Sharma was released from ATS office, and was asked to return for questioning again the next day. On May 16, 2023, around 11 am, Mr. Manish Sharma went to the ATS office, Pandaya Nagar on his own volition. ATS again threatened him to keep distance from the ongoing weaver’s movement and land movement. Mr. Manish Sharma alleged in a press conference that his abduction and harassment were reprisal for taking part in successful democratic movements.