Adil Abass

Journalist

[Adil Abass @adilabass2011]

Longing for summer days.
#Monochrome

[Adil Abass @adilabass2011]

🤌🏼🩶

[Financial Times @FT]

Houthis capture Red Sea port in blow to Saudis https://t.co/xQUZggIyB5

[Seyed Mohammad Marandi @s_m_marandi]

Bombing the heroic defenders of Gaza to help Trump's favorite prince? I hope this is a malicious lie.

[Tehran Times @TehranTimes79]

The first footage showed the U.S.-captured underwater vessel in the Strait of Hormuz.

[Arya Yadegaar @AryJeayBackup]

BREAKING: Iran just launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles from several missile cities in Iran towards US Army targets including those in Jordan.

This is a significant wave compared to previous rounds.

[Press Club of India @PCITweets]

The Press Club of India strongly condemns the suspension of the Instagram accounts of three independent journalists following their ground reporting from Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh, on a public health crisis involving the deaths of children from the Adivasi community.

[Adil Abass @adilabass2011]

📍Keshi Ghat, Vrindavan, India.

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

Israel’s forced displacement of more than 33,000 Palestinians in the West Bank could amount to a “crime against humanity” and involves “ethnic cleansing”, according to a report published by the UN.

🔗 https://t.co/oXeFWxbk2L

[The Telegraph @ttindia]

“The whole world should know, I didn’t even go to jail. I was roaming around all night,” Swatantra Bhardwaj said, before elaborating on why he is special

https://t.co/wYDogtz7Od

[Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) @internetfreedom]

Statement: Delhi Police's facial recognition sweep at Jantar Mantar is unreliable and unlawful: the list of 2,873 must be withdrawn

New Delhi, 4 September 2026

The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) is gravely concerned by The Indian Express's investigation, published today, into the Delhi Police's claim that its Facial Recognition System (FRS) identified 2,873 persons with "criminal antecedents" at the Jantar Mantar protests of 20 to 26 July 2026. Of the 205 persons accused of murder, rape and attempt to murder whom it checked, the Express found that at least 25 were lodged in Tihar, Mandoli or Rohini jails when the software placed them at the protest. Some had been in custody for years. This is not a marginal error as it displays a 12 per cent rate of demonstrable impossibility in the only sample independently verified, with no reason to believe the remaining 2,668 names are any better. Yet on 1 September 2026, at the Union's request, the Supreme Court, while quashing all FIRs against student protesters under Article 142, permitted the Delhi Police to register "fresh and specific" FIRs against these 2,873 persons. The Court was entitled to assume that the sworn affidavit of 17 August 2026 rested on verified facts, however these appear to be subject to further verification.

A system the police know to be unreliable

In a 2022 RTI reply to IFF, the Delhi Police disclosed that it treats a match as "positive" at a similarity score of just 80 per cent, and retains lower-scoring "false positives" for "empirical investigation". The system was procured in 2018 under the Delhi High Court's orders in Sadhan Haldar v. NCT of Delhi to trace missing children; the Court was later told its accuracy was around 2 per cent. A tool bought to find lost children is now building dossiers on protesters, which is a function creep.

In K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017) 10 SCC 1, nine judges held that any intrusion into privacy must satisfy legality, necessity and proportionality. Legality requires a law, and there is none. The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022 permits "measurements", including photographs, to be taken only from persons convicted, arrested or detained (Sections 3 to 5), not the scanning of every face at a lawful assembly against a police database. Neither the Delhi Police Act, 1978 nor the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 confers such a power. The "Crime Kundli" database against which 2,402 of these matches were run has no disclosed statutory basis or retention limit, and the affidavit does not say whether the 2,873 are convicts, accused, or merely named in a case.

A disproportionate assault on the right to protest

In Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan v. Union of India (2018) 17 SCC 324, the Supreme Court held that peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar is protected by Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(b), and Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India (2020) 3 SCC 637 requires the State to choose the least restrictive measure. Sifting thousands of faces to single out people for their status rather than their conduct fails every limb of that test. It also inverts the presumption of innocence: "field verification" means police at the doors of 2,873 households whose only established act is, at most, attending a protest, or, as the Express shows, not even that. The Court of Appeal of England and Wales held live facial recognition unlawful in R (Bridges) v. Chief Constable of South Wales Police [2020] EWCA Civ 1058 for leaving "too much discretion" to individual officers. Further, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (A/HRC/48/31, 2021) has called for a moratorium on remote biometric identification in public spaces, and the EU's AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 5(1)(h)) prohibits it for law enforcement save in narrow, judicially authorised cases.

Our demands

In July 2026, IFF wrote to the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, seeking an end to live facial recognition at protest sites, deletion of protesters' facial templates and match results, and publication of the governing SOPs. Those demands stand. Today we further call upon:

1. The Delhi Police to withdraw the list of 2,873 persons, place the Express's findings before the Supreme Court, and suspend all "field verification" pending an independent technical audit of the FRS;

2. The Union Government to impose a moratorium on facial recognition at public assemblies;

3. Parliament to enact a statutory framework for biometric surveillance with prior judicial authorisation, retention limits and independent oversight;

4. The Supreme Court to be informed that the affidavit it relied upon has been shown to be wrong and subject to further verification.

[Adil Abass @adilabass2011]

Got my X account back. Grateful to everyone who supported me and helped amplify the issue. Alhamdulillah✨

[RT @RT_com]

❗️ NEPAL WARNS DAM BURST AGAIN IN TIBET

Rescue teams and public urged to move to safe areas as water surges, after this week’s flash floods killed nearly 500 people

[RT @RT_com]

Ansarallah checkpoints SCREEN MEN for SUICIDE BELTS & BOMBS at Yemen event

KNIVES & AKs? NO PROBLEM

[Adil Abass @adilabass2011]

Jama Masjid, Dellhi 💚

[العتبة العلوية المقدسة @imamalinet]

حشود مليونية تحيي ذكرى #الأربعين في كربلاء المقدسة
#على_خطى_الحسين

[Adil Abass @adilabass2011]

On the 20th of Safar, Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari became the first pilgrim to visit the blessed grave of Imam Husayn (AS) in Karbala. His journey gave the enduring tradition of Arbaeen, a timeless testimony that the message of Karbala lives on. #Arbaeen‌

[PressTV Extra @PresstvExtra]

Millions of pilgrims are heading to Karbala ahead of the Arbaeen, the anniversary of the 40th day of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain (AS) and his companions at the Battle of Karbala.

Follow: https://t.co/h0eMpifVIe

[Seyed Mohammad Marandi @s_m_marandi]

If Trump attacks tonight, Iran's overwhelming response will begin immediately. All people should prepare to leave the criminal family dictatorships in the Persian Gulf at once.

[Arya Yadegaar @AryJeayBackup]

Iraqi people put up a banner addressed to Iranian pilgrims for the Arbaeen walk currently:

“Our sky is for your missiles, and our land is for your pilgrims.”