New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani reportedly wrote a personal letter to Umar Khalid, the former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student and activist who is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The image of the letter was shared by Umar Khalid’s official Facebook page. It surfaced on social media on Thursday, the same day Mamdani was sworn in as mayor of New York City, becoming the first Muslim and Indian-origin leader to head America’s largest city and one of the youngest to hold the office.
This comes after news that eight US lawmakers wrote to the Indian government, requesting that Umar Khalid be granted bail and a fair trial. Khalid’s parents had earlier travelled to the US and met several political leaders, including Mamdani, to raise concerns about his imprisonment, according to a formal letter sent to the Indian Ambassador in Washington in late December 2025.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani reaches out to Umar Khalid
In a handwritten note that surfaced on the social media platform X, Mamdani recalled a previous interaction with Khalid and offered comforting words. “Dear Umar, I think of your words on bitterness often, and the importance of not letting it consume one’s self. It was a pleasure to meet your parents. We are all thinking of you,” Mamdani wrote.
Zohran Mamdani writes to Umar Khalid.
— banojyotsna … (@banojyotsna) January 1, 2026
December 2025. #FreeUmarKhalid#FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners pic.twitter.com/QTYe06cRp5
Umar’s friend Banojyotsna Lahiri, who also shared the letter on X, told HT, “Umar’s parents were in the US in December. There, they met several people, including Mamdani.”
Umar Khalid’s Imprisonment
Khalid, a former JNU scholar, was arrested in September 2020 for his alleged role in a conspiracy linked to the Delhi riots earlier that year. While the Delhi High Court has discharged him in one FIR, he remains in custody under another case involving the UAPA.
His bail pleas have been repeatedly rejected over the past five years. In December 2025, the Supreme Court reserved judgment on the matter.
Umar Khalid has been in jail since September 2020 in connection with the communal violence in Delhi in February 2020. The violence left at least 53 dead and more than 500 injured, according to government estimates
Police claim Khalid played a key role in planning protests, creating WhatsApp groups, and distributing pamphlets calling for road blockades or “chakka-jaams” after the CAA was passed in December 2019.
Mamdani’s letter may not come as a surprise to many, as the young Democrat has spoken publicly in support of Khalid before. In June 2023, during a ‘Howdy, Democracy?!’ event in New York ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US, he read excerpts from Khalid’s prison writings.
At that time, Mamdani, then a member of the New York State Assembly, said: “I’m going to be reading a letter from Umar Khalid, who is a scholar and a former student activist at JNU… He organised a campaign against lynching and hate. He has been in jail for more than 1,000 days under the UAPA and has yet to face trial, though his bail application has been repeatedly denied. He has also faced an assassination attempt.”
