Sajad Gul, Kashmiri journalist from Bandipora who was booked under draconian Public Safety Act last year, has competed one year of illegal detention.
On January 10, 2022, Sajad, a journalism student at Central University of Kashmir was arrested in the wake of multiple raids by the Indian troops on his house. Fed up with frequent raids, Sajad handed himself over to the police. He is currently lodged at Uttar Pradesh’s central jail, India.
Sajad was booked under the 120B (party to criminal conspiracy), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), and 505B (fear or alarm to the public) sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The Kashmiri journalist was granted bail and the family was expecting that he would be released soon. Expecting his release, the family went to the police station in order to take Sajad home. But after waiting for hours, the family was told that he wasn’t at the Hajin Police Station.
Speaking to the media, the family members of Sajad had said that they had no clue regarding his whereabouts. “We went to meet him in the morning and he was not at the Hajin Police Station, where he was initially lodged,” his brother had said.
A police official later confirmed that Sajad who was booked under the Public Safety Act was shifted to Jammu’s Kotbhalwal Jail.
However, earlier this year, Sajad Gul was shifted to a jail in Uttar Pradesh, India. In its dossier, the said that the journalist is “rather promoting enmity”.
The police dossier ridiculously claimed that his work can “manipulate” the people of Kashmir, posing a “potential threat” to the “sovereignty of India.”—KMS
