Kashmiri Journalist Aasif Sultan Slapped With PSA Days After Jail Release

Aasif was arrested by police on 27 August 2018. Pertinently, he is the third journalist booked under PSA.

SRINAGAR — Kashmiri Journalist Aasif Sultan, who was granted bail earlier this week after four years has been booked under Public Safety Act (PSA).

Reports quoting Senior Superintendent of Police, Srinagar, Rakesh Bhalwal said that Aasif has been booked under PSA and shifted to Kot Bhalwal jail in the Jammu. Sultan was earlier given bail by a special court under NIA Act in Srinagar after four years in prison.

He was later handed over to Police Station Batamaloo, in Srinagar, where he remained detained.

Aasif was arrested by police on 27 August 2018. Pertinently, he is the third journalist booked under PSA. Earlier this year, PSA was slapped on journalists Fahad Shah and Sajad Gul.

Sultan, 34, who worked as an assistant editor for a Srinagar-based English magazine, is accused of “harbouring known militants”, an allegation he denies. He has also been charged with murder, attempt to murder and other crimes.

But Sultan’s family and the editor of the magazine he worked for, deny the accusations, saying he was arrested for his journalistic work, particularly for a story titled The Rise of Burhan, which he wrote for his magazine in July 2018.