OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: An award-winning journalist in Illegally Indian-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) who spent more than five years in jail returned home Wednesday after a court in the disputed region granted him bail in an ongoing terrorism case.

Aasif Sultan, a reporter with a magazine that is now shuttered, was first arrested in August 2018 accused of “harbouring known militants”.

Further charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) were levelled against him after he was accused of participating in a jail riot.

Sultan was briefly bailed in February but rearrested two days later on fresh charges under the act. A relative and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Sultan had been released again this week. “He returned home today, but the bail conditions are very harsh. He is virtually banned from talking to anyone outside the family,” the relative told AFP, declining to be named for fear of reprisal.