Days after bail in UAPA case, Kashmiri Journalist Aasif Sultan booked under PSA

Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan, who got bail earlier this week in a UAPA case, has been booked under Public Safety Act.

The 35-year-old was granted bail by a special NIA court in Srinagar nearly after four years.

Rakesh Balwal, the senior superintendent of police, Srinagar, has confirmed The Kashmir Walla that Sultan has been booked under PSA and shifted to Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu.

Kashmir journalist #AasifSultan was granted bail by the court last week after four years in prison. After the bail CIK took him to the custody & kept him at Humaham Camp later he was handed over to PS batamaloo where he was illegally detained. Today, he was booked under PSA.

— Shahid Tantray | شاہد تانترے (@shahidtantray) April 10, 2022

He was immediately picked up and handed over to Batamaloo Police Station in Srinagar, where he remained detained.

Sultan was detained on 27 August 2018 by J&K police in a night raid at his home on charges of ‘harbouring militants’ and booked under the draconian UAPA law. He was named in a case about a gunfight between police and militants that took place in the Batmaloo neighbourhood of Srinagar city where Sultan lives.

Many human rights organisations and media watchdogs have campaigned for Aasif Sultan.

Sultan covered politics and human rights for Kashmir Narrator, a monthly news magazine published in Srinagar. The publication, however, shut down in April 2019.