Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has quashed the Public Safety Act (PSA) filed against Kashmiri journalist Asif Sultan.
Quashing the detention order of Sultan, Justice V C Koul directed the Manoj Sinha led JK administration to release him from preventive detention unless he is required in any other case.Asif was jailed in 2018.
In 2019, he received the annual John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award by National Press Club of America. Earlier on August 27, the journalist completed fifth year in jail.
He was booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and is currently lodged at Ambedkar Nagar Central Jail in Agra, Uttar Pradesh after being transferred from a prison in Jammu and Kashmir.
Press organizations on a global scale have been consistently advocating for Aasif Sultan’s immediate release. They have collectively characterized his detention as a “targeted action” against him.
On August 27, 2018, Aasif Sultan, a journalist associated with the monthly magazine Kashmir Narrator, was taken into custody by the Jammu and Kashmir police.
He was formally arrested a few days later and charged with harboring militants. The police filed a charge sheet in February 2019, accusing him of complicity in harboring known terrorists under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act).
Throughout the legal proceedings, Sultan was held at the Srinagar Central Jail. Despite the amendment of the charges against him by Jammu and Kashmir authorities, including dropping serious allegations such as conspiracy against the state and planning a militant attack, Sultan’s requests for bail were consistently denied.
A statement submitted on October 3, 2018, in front of a judge in Srinagar, claimed that Sultan had connections with a militant group and was promoting it through social media. Sultan and his family strongly contested this accusation, asserting that he was being targeted due to his journalistic activities.
In a notable instance, Sultan authored a cover story for the Kashmir Narrator in July 2018, focusing on the Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani. Wani’s killing by armed forces in July 2016 had triggered a series of anti-government protests in Kashmir.
Sultan’s story included interviews with non-combatant members of Wani’s group, Hizbul Mujahideen. According to Sultan’s brother, Motta Sultan, the police applied pressure on Aasif Sultan to reveal the sources behind the story.
On April 5, 2022, a court in Srinagar granted him bail in the UAPA case. Nevertheless, his release was short-lived as he was promptly taken in for questioning by the CIK (Counter Intelligence Kashmir). Subsequently, he was once again detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA).
He was initially transferred to Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu, only to be subsequently relocated to Agra Central Jail in Uttar Pradesh.
