Paris, September 07, 2018 (PPI-OT): Paris-based Reporters Without Borders or Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has called for immediate and unconditional release of Kashmiri journalist, Aasif Sultan, who has been detained by the Indian police in Srinagar for the past several days.
Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, in a statement issued on the website of the organization said, “Detaining a journalist without any serious evidence to support the charges against him is unacceptable.” He urged the authorities to drop all charges against the journalist and take action against the police officers responsible for his arbitrary detention.
The RSF said Aasif Sultan, 31, working for monthly magazine Kashmir Narrator, was arrested on the night of 27th August when around 50 policemen descended on his home in Srinagar, searched it and then took him away to a police station. “His editor said he has been subjected to a great deal of violence, including being hit in the face, in an attempt to get him to explain his political ideology,” it said.
The RSF said that a similar incident happened a year ago on 5th September 2017 when Kamran Yousuf, a Kashmiri photojournalist, was arrested and handed over to India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA). “He was freed on bail after six months but is still facing prosecution,” it added.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org