Kashmir journalists’ fraternity demands release of detained colleague

The Kashmir Working Journalists Association (KWJA) and Kashmir Journalist Association (KJA) on Saturday demanded the immediate release of a Srinagar-based journalist Asif Sultan.
They said Sultan has been under ‘illegal detention’ at Police Station Batamaloo for the last six days.

“We demand his immediate release from illegal custody, and action against police officials in charge of the station, and S P South Srinagar for keeping a journalist under illegal detention for a week,” said a joint statement issued by the journalists’ bodies.

Sultan, an Assistant Editor with the monthly newsmagazine, Kashmir Narrator, was picked up from his home in Batamaloo on Monday night, purportedly for questioning, and since then police has not released him, the statement said.

“We have learnt that Sultan is being questioned for his report on slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, published in a recent issue of Kashmir Narrator, along with other stories and has been asked to report his sources to police.

Apart from the mistreatment meted out to him in custody, he is also being put questions about his political ideology,” it said.