An award-winning journalist in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK), who spent more than five years in jail, returned home on Wednesday after a court in the disputed region granted him bail in an ongoing terrorism case.
Asif Sultan, a reporter with a magazine that is now shuttered, was first arrested in August 2018 accused of “harbouring known militants”. Further charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) were levelled against him after he was accused of participating in a jail riot.
Sultan was briefly bailed in February but rear-rested two days later on fresh charges under the act. A relative and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Sultan had been released again this week.
“He returned home today, but the bail condi-tions are very harsh. He is virtually banned from talking to anyone outside the family,” the relative told AFP, declining to be named for fear of reprisal.
Kunal Majumder of CPJ said on social media platform X that Sultan had been bailed on Tuesday. A court document seen by AFP and dated Fri-day said that Sultan’s detention did “not serve any purpose” and granted his bail on strict conditions.
Sultan was forbidden from travelling outside IoK, using encrypted communication apps such as WhatsApp and allowing anyone else to use his phone.
More than half a million Indian soldiers are deployed in IoK, battling a running freedom movement from groups demanding independence or the territory’s merger with Pakistan. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians.
India accuses Pakistan of backing the insur-gents, a charge that Islamabad denies.
Kashmiri journalists say independent media has suffered since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government cancelled the region’s limited autonomy and imposed a drastic security clampdown in 2019.—AFP
