(PPF/IFEX) – On 19 July 2005, police in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and media centre, raided the offices of a daily newspaper and three weekly magazines and arrested two journalists for publishing hate literature. Police also arrested newspaper vendors from various localities for selling the magazines. Police raided the offices of the Urdu-language weekly “Friday […]
(PPF/IFEX) – On 19 July 2005, police in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and media centre, raided the offices of a daily newspaper and three weekly magazines and arrested two journalists for publishing hate literature. Police also arrested newspaper vendors from various localities for selling the magazines.
Police raided the offices of the Urdu-language weekly “Friday Special”, a subsidiary of the daily “Jasarat”. They asked assistant editor Abdul Latif Abu Shamil to hand over copies of the weekly and then arrested him. “Jasarat” is a publication of Jamaat-i-Islami, an opposition political party.
Police also raided the offices of the weekly “Wujood” and arrested editor Mohammad Tahir. Police said the journalists were arrested for publishing hate materials to create religious disharmony.
Police also raided the offices of the weekly “Ghazi” and daily “Ummat”, but no arrests were made.
On 16 July, police raided the offices of the weekly magazine “Zarb-i-Islam”, arrested its editor and a reporter, as well as a number of newspaper vendors. Police also seized many magazine copies from various stalls in the city (see IFEX alert of 19 July 2005).
Police claimed the weeklies contained articles that could incite sentiments of people against other religions and cultures. Press reports quoting a police official said the action had been taken in compliance with directives from higher authorities.
The All Pakistan Akhbar Farosh Federation, a national newspaper vendors’ association, has threatened to launch a country-wide strike over the arrests. The group alleged that police had arrested more than 30 newspaper vendors from different areas of Karachi without any justification.
“We have no link with politics,” the federation said, while noting that the police action against vendors was illegal. They demanded the government take immediate steps in this regard and stop police from seizing newspapers and magazines from stalls without paying for them.
The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) has called an emergency meeting for 20 July to discuss the situation.
