Brussels: The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the re-arrest of Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan, saying the draconian law Public Safety Act (PSA) is being misused to harass and detain journalists.
Aasif Sultan was held for nearly four years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), after he was arrested in August 2018 on the false charges of ‘harnessing known militants’, criminal conspiracy, and aiding and participating in militant activities.
He was granted bail on April 5 by a special court of India’s notorious National Investigation Agency (NIA) after the Indian government failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove its charges leveled against him. However, Indian police rearrested Sultan only days later on April 10, lodging him in Jammu’s Kot Bhalwal Jail, this time under the PSA.
“Under the PSA, Sultan can be held for up to two years without a formal charge against him and without trial. Detainees under the PSA do not have the right to move a bail application, nor hire any lawyer to represent them,” the IFJ said in a statement.
The journalists’ body also recounted that Sultan is the third Kashmiri journalist to be arrested under the PSA in 2022. Fahad Shah, editor of The Kashmir Walla, was detained under the PSA on February 14. Journalist Sajad Gul was also detained under the same Act on January 16, 2022. In Gul’s case too, the administration invoked the PSA after he was granted bail in a separate case.
Before his arrest, Aasif Sultan was working for the magazine Kashmir Narrator and had published an article titled ‘The Rise of Burhan’, profiling the prominent youth leader, Burhan Wani, whose martyrdom in 2016 at the hands of Indian troops triggered mass uprising in IIOJK.
Sultan received a Press Freedom Award from the American National Press Club in 2019. In 2020, his detention was listed by TIME magazine as being among the 10 ‘Most Urgent’ cases of threats to press freedom.
Geetartha Pathak, president of the IFJ’s Indian affiliate, the Indian Journalists Union, expressed grave concern at the re-arrest of Aasif Sultan. The journalists body urged the authorities in IIOJK not to use draconian laws like the PSA against journalists and allow them to perform their duties without any interference.
The IFJ said Sultan’s “prolonged detainment and immediate re-arrest violates the fundamental rights to freedoms of press and expression enshrined in the Indian constitution”. It said that the “completely arbitrary” and new charges under the PSA are a “blatant attempt to silence critical and independent reportage in Jammu and Kashmir”.
The IFJ urged the authorities in IIOJK to immediately release Aasif Sultan and ensure that journalists can work freely and independently, without fear of persecution, the statement said.
Earlier, the US-based media watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) asked the Indian police in IIOJK to respect the decision of the judiciary, “which has found no evidence to justify” holding Sultan in jail. Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, in Washington, D.C, said, “Sultan should be released at once, having already spent over three and a half years in jail without being convicted of any crime, and the authorities must cease weaponizing preventative detention and anti-terror laws against journalists to muzzle their work.” Web Desk
