The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday issued a statement regarding the arrest of Kashmir-based journalist Aasif Sultan.
In the statement, the police said, “On 31/8/2018 , Asif Sultan, S/O Mohammed Sultan Saida, R/O Firdous Abad, Batmaaloo has been arrested by Police Station Batmaloo in case FIR No: 173/2018. The initial questioning of the accused, subsequent searches and disclosures made in the case so far have led to seizure of incriminating materials from various locations. It also establishes his complicity for harbouring known terrorists involved in serious terror crimes. Further investigation of the case is going on.”
Aasif Sultan, a Kashmir-based journalist, who is the Assistant Editor of the monthly magazine Kashmir Narrator has been languishing in police custody since a week now, his father said.
While returning from Police Station Batmaloo, Mohammad Sultan, Aasif’s father informed FPK that his son, a “diligent journalist” was picked up by the forces at around 2 in the intervening night of August 26-27. He reckons that he is in trouble for a story that was published in the magazine.
“The story was about Burhan Wani,” Sultan said. “Now, they picked him up for no crime of his.”
It is for the first time that Aasif has landed in trouble for fulfilling his professional duties, he said.
A top police official from Batmaloo informed FPK that Aasif has been locked up in the police station Batamaloo and that his case will be handled by the court.
“There is a proper process behind it,” the officer said. “He was picked up for questioning and we needed to formally arrest him. Now the case will go to the court. SP [South] is handling it.”
