Kashmiri Journalist Asif Sultan Released After Over Five Years

Sources said that Asif, who was imprisoned in Ambedkar Nagar district jail in Uttar Pradesh was released after his family got clearance letters from the District Magistrate Srinagar and police agencies. Asif was arrested in 2018 on charges of harbouring militants.

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): Three months after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashed his detention under the Public Safety Act, Kashmiri journalist Asif Sultan, who was arrested in 2018 on militancy charges, was finally released on Wednesday Feb 28 after spending over five years in jail. It took Sultan 78 days to get clearances from Jammu and Kashmir administration and finally walk out of jail.

Asif was imprisoned in Ambedkar Nagar district jail in Uttar Pradesh. Jail superintendent confirmed to media in UP that Sultan was released after his family got clearance letters from the District Magistrate Srinagar and police agencies.

Asif was arrested in 2018 by Jammu and Kashmir police on allegations of supporting militants in Srinagar and booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and other sections of Indian Penal Code. After prolonged appeals for bail, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court granted him bail in 2021, but the J&K administration booked him under PSA and shifted him outside JK to Ambedkar Nagar district jail.

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashed his PSA on December 11, but it took the police and district magistrate Srinagar 78 days to give him clearance.

When Asif was arrested he was working with the monthly magazine 'Kashmir Narrator', now closed, and wrote a news story on slain HM commander Burhan Wani, that became a trigger for his arrest. An encounter also took place in Batamaloo, his native place, in 2018 in which a cop was killed. Police arrested Asif and accused him of facilitating militants towards the encounter site.

His family and lawyer denied the allegation in Jammu and Kashmir High Court which granted him bail in April 2022. Asif was jailed when his daughter was six months old. His father Muhammad Sultan was quoted by media that his daughter, who is now six years old doesn't recognise his father.