diff --git a/hmp.c b/hmp.c
index 35a7041824..2d72f94193 100644
--- a/hmp.c
+++ b/hmp.c
@@ -2318,7 +2318,6 @@ void hmp_qemu_io(Monitor *mon, const QDict *qdict)
 {
     BlockBackend *blk;
     BlockBackend *local_blk = NULL;
-    AioContext *aio_context;
     const char* device = qdict_get_str(qdict, "device");
     const char* command = qdict_get_str(qdict, "command");
     Error *err = NULL;
@@ -2338,9 +2337,6 @@ void hmp_qemu_io(Monitor *mon, const QDict *qdict)
         }
     }
 
-    aio_context = blk_get_aio_context(blk);
-    aio_context_acquire(aio_context);
-
     /*
      * Notably absent: Proper permission management. This is sad, but it seems
      * almost impossible to achieve without changing the semantics and thereby
@@ -2368,8 +2364,6 @@ void hmp_qemu_io(Monitor *mon, const QDict *qdict)
      */
     qemuio_command(blk, command);
 
-    aio_context_release(aio_context);
-
 fail:
     blk_unref(local_blk);
     hmp_handle_error(mon, &err);