Kashmiri Journalist Re-arrested Hours After Release From Five Years Of Detention (Photo on X أمينة Amina @AminaaKausar )

Hours after the release of a Kashmiri journalist Asif Sultan after five years of jail term, he was re-arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police for another case. According to a report, the family said that Mr Asif Sultan reached home on Thursday and then he received a call from the police telling him to report to the local police station. On his arrival at the station, the police detained the journalist again, making the joy of the family short-lived after years of waiting.

The Srinagar-based journalist was released on Wednesday after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashed his detention terming it “illegal and unsustainable,” on December 7 last year. He then continued in prison even after the Court”s verdict in December for another two months. However, Mr Sultan was released only to be rearrested the next day.

Notably, though the Jammu and Kashmir police have not issued any statement for the journalist’s fresh arrest, the official sources said that he was arrested for a 2019 case registered at the Rainawari police station over a stir of inmates inside the Srinagar Central jail. He had been shifted to a jail in Uttar Pradesh in April 2022 under the Public Safety Act after spending around four years in Srinagar Central Jail.

Mr Sultan was working as an assistant editor at Srinagar-based English Magazine Kashmir Narrator when he was arrested in September 2018. He was arrested after he published a story on militant commander Burhan Wani who was killed in a firefight with Indian forces.

The police had accused him of hatching a criminal conspiracy and harbouring militant. The court while releasing him on bail stated that the investigative agencies could not establish his link with any militant group. The family sources say that he was arrested for his work as a journalist, The Indian Express reported.