Asif Sultan

Asif Sultan, also known as Aasif Sultan, is a Kashmiri journalist who has been jailed by India since August 2018.On October 17, 2019, Sultan received the annual John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award by the National Press Club of America. In April 2022, Aasif was granted bail but not released, instead he was re-arrested and booked under the Public Safety Act.

On 27 August 2023, Asif completed 5 years in jail.

In 2018 Sultan, as a politics and human rights journalist in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir for the monthly Srinagar-based Kashmir Narrator.He was reporting on civil unrest in Kashmir, including interviewing alleged members of militant groups, and was arrested on 27 August 2018 under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.Sultan was refused bail and his trial only began in Jun 2019.

Aasif Sultan published 'The rise of Burhan Wani', the profile of Kashmiri militant and the real reason of his framing in the case and later brazenly acknowledged by the police in the Public Safety Act dossier. The establishment did not like his journalist work on Burhan Wani who was killed in 2016. However, a senior police officer claimed that evidence against Sultan was “strong”, but refused to disclose more since the case is in court.

Committee to Protect Journalists and various other international organisations have demanded release of Aasif Sultan.

In April 2022, Aasif was granted bail but was not released, instead re-arrested and booked under the Public Safety Act.

• Sultan, Sultan (1 July 2018). "The Rise of Burhan". Kashmir Narrator. No. June 2018. Srinagar. Archived from the original on 4 July 2018. Retrieved 1 June 2021.

• John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award (2019)