NY mayor Zohran Mamdani pens note for Umar Khalid, hands it over to jailed student leader's parents: ‘Thinking of you’

Zohran Mamdani, who became the city’s first Asian American and Muslim mayor last year, handed over the note to Umar Khalid’s parents in the US.

New York City’s Indian-origin mayor, Zohran Mamdani has sent a handwritten letter to jailed activist Umar Khalid.

A handwritten letter has formed a link between jailed activist Umar Khalid and New York City’s Indian-origin mayor, Zohran Mamdani, over a distance of 11,700 km (X)

In the letter addressed to Khalid, Mamdani said, “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.”

The 34-year-old, who became the city’s first Asian American and Muslim mayor last year, handed over the note to Khalid’s parents when he met them during their trip to the US in December 2025.

On Thursday, the day Mamdani was sworn in, Khalid’s partner, Bunojyotsana Lahiri, shared a photo of the note in a post on X.

Lahiri told HT that Umar’s parents — Sahiba Khanam and Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas — had visited the US just before the wedding of their youngest daughter to meet one of their elder daughters who lives there since she was not going to be able to attend.

“They met Mamdani and a few others in the US and spent quite some time with him. That’s when he wrote this note,” she said.

Khalid, who has been in jail since 2020 under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), was given interim bail in December to attend his sister’s wedding.

Lahiri said that Umar spent all his time at home as his bail conditions did not allow him to step out. “But it went by so fast as it did the two times earlier he was out on bail. He had home-cooked food which his mother often fed him and he spent a lot of time with his nieces and nephews.”

He is since back in jail.

In 2023, at an event in New York last year, Mamdani read aloud from a letter Khalid had written which he said he kept trying to tell himself not to turn bitter about his circumstances and look at them from a larger perspective.

Meanwhile, Congress member James P McGovern has written to India’s ambassador to the US Vinay Mohan Kwatra, expressing concern over the pre-trial incarceration of people charged in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots.

In his letter, McGovern said, “For allegedly instigating the violence, authorities issued charges against Umar Khalid and other Muslim rights defenders. Human rights organisations, legal experts, and global media have raised questions about the fairness of the investigation and legal process... Independent investigations conducted by reputable human rights groups did not find evidence linking Mr. Khalid to terrorist activity.”

“As a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), India must uphold the rights of individuals to receive a ‘trial within a reasonable time or to be released’ and to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.”