MUZAFFARABAD: A Mirpur-based
journalist was beaten by a violent group of youngsters, related to a local
PML-N leader, during an attack on the office of his Urdu daily on Friday,
police and his colleagues said.
According
to witnesses, the attackers entered the office of Daily Chingari located on the
first floor of a plaza in Shaheed Chowk, Mirpur, at about 11am and started
beating its editor, Shahid Mahmood Mirza.
The
attackers, said to be furious at a column in the paper which they said carried
baseless allegations about their elders, ransacked the office and whisked Mr
Mirza off to the main thoroughfare, downstairs, where they sprinkled used Mobil
oil on him.
However,
the people present in the area intervened and rescued the victim.
The
attackers fled from the scene, before other journalists arrived there.
The
injured journo was admitted to a local hospital.
“The
accused had been watching my movements for some time... Today one of them first
checked my availability and later around 20 of them entered my office and
started thrashing me in the presence of two guests. They also tried to set me
ablaze after pouring Mobil oil on me, but people present there rescued me,” Mr
Mirza told Dawn from the hospital bed.
An
official in the Thothal police station told Dawn by telephone that they had
booked Dr Amin Chaudhry, his son Wasif Amin and over a dozen unknown persons,
on the basis of an FIR, for assaulting the journalist and ransacking his
office.
Dr
Amin, it may be mentioned here, is a political activist, currently affiliated
with the PML-N. He had also held the office of chairman Mirpur Development
Authority during the previous Muslim Conference government.
Police
were raiding different places for the arrest of the nominated accused, but had
not been successful till the filing of this report.
Mirpur-based
journalists, who had staged a protest shortly after the incident, have warned
to stage a sit-in at 11am on Saturday, if the arrests were not made by then.
Calling
upon the PML-N president Raja Farooq Haider to take action against the accused,
they also urged the law enforcement agencies to ensure the safety of lives and
properties of the journalists who dared to expose wrongdoings of the so-called
influential segments of society.
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