After being held for nearly four years pending trial on charges of aiding militants, Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan was released on bail by a court last week, and he thinks he may finally be able to. returned home to his wife and daughter, who was only 6 months old when he was arrested.
But the Indian authorities did not release him, imposed the same charges under a different law, and have since transferred him to another prison.
Human rights activists say Mr Sultan’s case is the latest in which Indian authorities have weaponized the legal system to limit freedom of expression and harass journalists, particularly journalists. are those in the disputed Kashmir region. Some have been arrested under laws that allow people to be detained for long periods without trial, and that makes bail terms extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible.
Mr. Sultan is currently being held under the strict Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, a precautionary detention law that allows regional authorities to hold a suspect in prison for up to two years – without any other charges. any formal criminal charges, and therefore, without any trial and without hope of bail – if the local authority considers the person a security risk or a threat to public order.
Activists say the law violates international human rights and lawyers say the Indian authorities used the law to round up Kashmir posing no threat of violence, including journalists. students and those with major political or economic influence in the region.
“The Public Safety Act is based on the fear that a person might do something illegal, not the other way around,” said Shafqat Nazir, a lawyer practicing at the Supreme Court of Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest city. must be someone who may have done something illegal. “Just on the basis of fear, a person can be detained for two years.”
Mr. Sultan’s experience – the prolonged detention either immediately after the bail was granted by the court or shortly before the bail hearing – became a pattern, applicable to at least two other Kashmiri journalists who were arrested. caught in recent months.
Fahad Shah, the editor-in-chief of a news website called The Kashmir Walla, was the first arrested in february. He has been arrested three times since, with authorities bringing new charges as soon as he was released on previous bail.
And Sajad Gul, an intern reporter for The Kashmir Walla, was arrested on January 5 for uploading a video he captured of the family of a slain fighter in which they were displaying slogans anti-India, police said, according to local media reports. He was released on bail 10 days later. But before he was released, authorities announced that he would continue to be detained under the Public Safety Act.
Activists point to the government grounds for arresting Mr. Shah, who has covered Kashmir extensively for international publications, as evidence of the Indian government’s interpretation of the Public Safety Law in a loose way. loosely how to silence journalists.
Mr. Shah was described by police as an “anti-state element under the guise of the press” who was “constantly propagating stories against the interests and security of the nation.”
Yashraj Sharma, who has led The Kashmir Walla since Mr. Shah’s detention, said the government’s implementation of the arrest, then backing, sent a chilling message to journalists.
“Every time we hit the publish button, we weren’t sure if that particular story would land us in jail the next day,” Mr. “Regional media has been muffled.”
The New York Times has issued multiple requests for comment on how the Public Safety Act applies in the region, to India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, the governor of Jammu and Kashmir, the police and the district magistrate’s office. Nobody answered.
Across India, activists, WriterStudents, academics and journalists have complained of a growing atmosphere of intimidation as the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in power since 2014, seeks to contain critics.
Sedation feeunder a law dating back to the British colonial era, which has been on the rise in recent years. Thousands of people, which includes poets, political organizers and a Catholic priest, was jailed under the anti-terrorism law, the Unlawful Activity Prevention Act. That law, the law under which Mr Sultan was initially detained, required a trial eventually and granted bail, although it could take years to be granted.
But in Kashmir, it is The Public Safety Act is used more often to silence dissidents, including minors.In part, critics argue that the law invests too much power in regional governments and is subject to too little judicial oversight.
Kashmiri journalists have long found themselves in a precarious position, squeezed between violent independence fighters and the Indian government, which has tried to keep a tight grip on the largely Muslim region.
But human rights activists say the crackdown on Kashmir’s media has intensified since 2019, when Mr. revoke the state’s special status, which granted it a degree of autonomyand dissolved its elected government, placing the area under direct control of the federal government.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has repeatedly called for Immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Sultan.
A retired police official defends the use of the Public Safety Act.
Shesh Paul Vaid, head of police in Jammu and Kashmir from 2016 to 2018. “It is not fair to say that the law is arbitrary,” said “Hundreds of journalists are working there. If these three people have been slapped by the PSA, it means that the authorities must have information on how they could be a threat to the security of the country or to law and order. ”
Mr Vaid added that an advisory panel, headed by a retired judge, must assess the government’s case for remand within three months.
Both the highest court in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the Supreme Court of India can overturn detentions under this act. “In a lot of cases, PSA detention has been dropped by higher courts,” Mr. Vaid said.
Mr. Sultan, who has been a journalist for more than a decade, was arrested in 2018 and charged under the Preventing Illegal Activity Act after writing an article about Burhan Wani, the group’s top commander. banned Kashmiri warrior Hizbul Mujahideen, who was killed by Indian security forces in 2016. After his death came protests and clashesone of the worst in the resistor area in years.
According to his lawyer, Adil Abdullah Pandit, authorities accused the Sultan of harboring militants and aiding the Hizbul Mujahideen, which the government considers a terrorist organization, to carry out militia activities. But Mr. Pandit convinced a special court that the government’s evidence was weak, and Mr. Sultan, who denied the government’s charges, was granted bail.
Local authorities then immediately took action to detain him under the Public Safety Act. Police claimed he was “planning to once again engage in illegal/anti-national activities” and said his detention was carried out “to prevent society from violence, strikes, economic adversity and social undiscipline.”
On Monday morning, it was confirmed that Mr Sultan had not yet returned home, his father, Muhammad and his daughter, Areeba Aasif, now 4, waiting outside the police station where he was being held. The eldest Sultan said he had seen his son, but was not allowed to talk to him.
“My wife doesn’t cry anymore. She used to cry a lot,” said eldest brother Sultan. “She is eagerly awaiting the return of her son. We are all like that.”
Mujib Mashal contribution report.
