Two days after his release from jail, Kashmiri journalist Asif Sultan arrested in UAPA case

Kashmiri journalist Asif Sultan was arrested on Thursday night, two days after he was released from a five-year detention, PTI reported.

Sultan was arrested in connection with a case filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, according to The Wire.

On Tuesday, the award-winning journalist was released from Uttar Pradesh’s Ambedkar Nagar district jail, more than two months after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashed his detention citing procedural lapses.

Despite the High Court’s ruling, Sultan had not been released, as “clearance letters” from Kashmir’s home department and Srinagar district magistrate were awaited.

However, his union with his family after being released from prison was short-lived, as he was initially summoned to Srinagar’s Rainawari police station on Thursday evening and later arrested in a case filed by Nowhatta police station, reported The Wire.

The family has now moved a bail application to secure his release, a Srinagar-based lawyer told the news portal.

Sultan was detained under the preventive detention law in April 2022, days after a court granted him bail in another case in which he had been in jail since August 2018 for allegedly harbouring militants.

On December 11, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashed the detention of Sultan under the Public Safety Act, saying that the authorities did not follow the procedural requirements in letter and spirit while detaining him.

The Public Safety Act allows the authorities to hold individuals in custody without trial for up to two years on grounds of national security and up to a year to maintain public order.

Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul had noted in the order passed in December that the authorities appeared to have taken the case against him under the anti-terror law into consideration while detaining him under the Public Safety Act.