Asif Iqbal Tanha is a 24-year-old student from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, who is studying for a BA in Persian Studies at Jamia Milia Islamia. He joined the Students Islamic Organization of India (SIO) – the student’s wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, at the age of 15. Tanha has also been instrumental in organizing protests and mobilising students against the anti-Muslim measures of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Tanha fought against injustice in the campus and actively participated in protests for the restoration of the Students Union and the right to association, which was suspended in 2006. He was also involved in the protest movement against the CAA-NRC right from the beginning and was an important decision-maker in the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC).
Sections 15 (committing acts of terror), 17 (funding acts of terror) and 18 (conspiring to commit/fund acts of terror) of the UAPA, and 124A (Sedition), 302 (Murder), and 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) of the IPC.