"My heart and head are in constant pain. How long will I be able to endure this suffering," asked 50-year-old Gulshana Banu, the ailing mother of Sajad Gul, a Kashmiri student and trainee reporter with the now defunct news portal The Kashmir Walla, jailed on charges of provoking “ill-will against the government.”
While the authorities recently granted bail to another Kashmiri journalist, Fahad Shah, after 658 days of imprisonment, Gul's family still awaits his release.
"We have completed all the formalities directed by the court, and now we are just keenly waiting for his release," Gul's brother told The Quint.
Gul was booked by the police on 7 January 2022 under sections 120B (party to criminal conspiracy), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), and 505B (fear or alarm to the public) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
He was granted bail by the Sessions Judge of Bandipora in connection with a criminal conspiracy. But before his release, he was booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and shifted to Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu, and later transferred to Uttar Pradesh.
According to the PSA, authorities may detain people without charge or trial for a maximum of two years if they pose a threat to national security or for a maximum of one year for the maintenance of public order.
On 19 November this year, while quashing the PSA against Sajad Gul, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court termed the detention on account of criticising the policies of the government as "a misuse of the preventive detention law."
A division bench of the High Court presided by Chief Justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice M A Chowdhary held that Gul being a critic of government policies and the fact that his tweets could provoke people against the government were not valid grounds to detain him under the PSA.
The court observed that the government had failed to show specific instances as to how his tweets had caused any public order issues.
But, according to his family, Gul continues to remain in jail due to another case against him.
Recently, the J&K High Court even quashed the PSA against Kashmiri reporter Asif Sultan, jail since 2018.
On 15 January 2022, a local court in Bandipora had ordered the police to release him on a bond of Rs 30,000 if he was not involved in further criminal activities. However, he was booked again under the previously mentioned IPC sections.
In a statement released on 8 January, the J&K Police announced that Gul had been taken into custody for allegedly inciting individuals to "resort to violence and disturb public peace."
"On the day when the most wanted terrorist Saleem Parray was eliminated in Srinagar, Gul uploaded objectionable videos with anti-national slogans raised by some women," the police said.
The police statement read that "under the garb of journalism, he [Gul] is habitually spreading disinformation through different social media platforms to create ill will against the government, and provoking the masses to resort to violence, disturbing public peace and tranquility."
Gul's lawyers, Senior Advocate Nazir Ahmad Ronga and Tuba Manzoor, had earlier told the court that their client was deprived of his constitutional and legal rights, as he had not been given access to the PSA dossier, FIRs, witness statements, or other documents that the authorities had "relied upon" to book him.
As a result, they claimed, he was unable to make a meaningful defense against his detention.
“In the absence of providing of the whole of the documentary record, the detenu cannot be said to be able to make an effective and meaningful representation against his detention which was his statutory as well as constitutional right,” the High Court ruled.
While Fahad Shah has made it back home, Gul's family awaits the same for him. Following the abrogation of Article 370, several journalists have been arrested. With Shah's release, the families of Asif Sultan, Irfan Mehraj, and Gul hope that the court will come to their rescue as well.
Frency Maneckhsa, an independent journalist and author based in Mumbai, told The Quint that it is good to see the court recognise that Gul was performing his professional duty while reporting the happenings in a sensitive area including the operation of security forces.
"The court emphasizes factual reporting and observes that no false stories were uploaded, and also says that mere negative criticism cannot be seen as working against the government. This bolsters the belief that journalists and human rights defenders are being targeted in Kashmir for their work. It is extremely sad and unjust that a promising young journalist has had to suffer for that," she added.
(Irshad Hussain is an independent journalist. He tweets: @Irshad55hussain.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)