Press organization condemns the re-arrest of Kashmiri journalist, says – misuse of PSA
Journalists’ organization International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the re-arrest of Kashmiri journalist Asif Sultan, saying the Public Safety Act (PSA) is being misused to harass and detain journalists.
According to the report, Sultan was detained under the UAPA for nearly four years after being arrested in August 2018 on charges of criminal conspiracy, involvement in terrorist activities. He was granted bail by a special NIA court on April 5, when the court said the government did not have enough evidence to establish his links with any terror outfit.
However, the police arrested him again a few days later on 10 April and this time under the PSA, kept him in Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu. “Under the PSA, the Sultan can be imprisoned for up to two years without a formal charge against him and without trial,” the IFJ said in a statement. The detainees detained under the PSA do not have the right to file a bail petition nor can they appoint a lawyer to represent them.
The journalist organization said that Sultan is the third Kashmiri journalist to be arrested under the PSA in 2022. Fahd Shah, editor of ‘Kashmir Wala’, was detained under PSA on February 14. Earlier, journalist Sajjad Gul was detained under PSA on 16 January 2022. In Gul’s case too, the administration imposed PSA on him after he got bail in a separate case.
Before his arrest, Sultan was working for the magazine ‘Kashmir Narrator’ and published an article titled ‘The Rise of Burhan’, which talked about terrorist Burhan Wani, who was killed by Indian security forces in 2016. Sultan was awarded the Press Freedom Award by the American National Press Club in 2019. In 2020, Time magazine listed his detention as one of the 10 Most Urgent Cases of Threats to Press Freedom.
Expressing concern over Sultan’s re-arrest, Geetarth Pathak, president of the Indian wing of the IFJ, said, “The IJU administration should not use harsh laws like PSA against journalists and allow journalists to perform their duties without any interference.” was requested to allow compliance.
The IFJ said the prolonged arrest and immediate re-arrest of the Sultan violated the fundamental rights to freedom of press and expression enshrined in the Indian Constitution. The IFJ said it was completely arbitrary, adding that the new allegations under the PSA are an attempt to silence independent reporting in Jammu and Kashmir. The IFJ asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to immediately release Asif Sultan and ensure that journalists can work freely without any fear of harassment. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Monday asked the Jammu and Kashmir Police to respect the decision of the judiciary. The court had said that no evidence was presented before them to keep the Sultan in jail.
Steven Butler, coordinator of CPJ’s Asia program, said: “The Sultan should be released because he has already spent three-and-a-half years in prison without being convicted of a crime, and the administration has been forced to use anti-terror laws to suppress journalists’ voices.” Detention should stop.
