Released after 5 years, journalist rearrested in Srinagar, within hours

Kashmiri journalist Asif Sultan, who was released after more than five years on Tuesday from Ambedkar Nagar district jail in Uttar Pradesh was rearrested on Thursday evening within hours of reaching his home in Srinagar in a separate case.

According to people familiar with the developments, Sultan has been re-arrested in a case registered in 2019, under section 13 of UA(P)A along with 147, 148, 149, 307 and 336 of IPC at Rainawari police station in Srinagar. Sultan has now been sent to five days police remand. After spending a few hours with his family, especially his six-year-old daughter - who was just six months old when he was arrested in 2018 - Asif's family received a call from the local police station in Batamaloo area directing them to get him there. He was kept at the police station for sometime.

Later, he was transported to the police station in Rainawari, late in the night. "This is when the family realised that he has been detained again," said a family insider. On Friday, the court sent him to police custody.


Sultan was arrested in 2018 under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, when he was working with now defunct Kashmir Narrator magazine. He was given bail in the case in April 2022. However, the authorities immediately slapped the Public Safety Act, which was quashed by the court in December 2023. He was released from jail on February 27, after around 78 days of quashing the order.