Around 1,100 people have signed a petition to the Haryana State Commission for Women to “stop harassing” an associate professor of Ashoka University over his remarks on Operation Sindoor.

The commission has sent a notice to M.A.A. Khan, also known as Ali Khan Mahmudabad, over his Facebook post “disparaging women in the armed forces and promoting communal disharmony”, among others.

The women’s panel has threatened to file an FIR against Khan if he ignores its final summons to appear before it in the matter on May 23.

The petition says: “Haryana has one of the highest rates of crimes against women in India, and we urgently need to focus on addressing violence and strengthening the rights of women rather than inventing offences where there are none…. However, through its actions, the commission has shown how constitutionally protected freedom of speech continues to be under threat from forces that seek to spread hatred and destabilise India.

“We, the undersigned, demand that the Haryana State Women’s Commission retract its summons and issue a full and public apology to Prof. Ali Khan Mahmudabad for the manner in which it has deliberately and maliciously slandered him.”

The signatories include academics and activists Amit Bhaduri, Anand Patwardhan, Harsh Mander, Jayati Ghosh, Nivedita Menon, Ramachandra Guha and Romila Thapar.

Khan had on May 8 wrote on Facebook: “Lastly, I am very happy to see so many right wing commentators applauding Colonel Sophia Qureishi but perhaps they could also equally loudly demand that the victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the BJP’s hate mongering be protected as Indian citizens. The optics of two women soldiers presenting their findings is important but optics must translate to reality on the ground otherwise it’s just hypocrisy.”