(PPF/IFEX) – Activists of Pakistan’s ruling Muslim League (PML-Q) party stormed the Peshawar Press Club on 29 June 2006 to foil a news conference being held there by dissident leaders of the party. The intruders, who were armed with Kalashnikovs, pistols and sticks, beat journalists and the dissident party members. The press club was attacked […]
(PPF/IFEX) – Activists of Pakistan’s ruling Muslim League (PML-Q) party stormed the Peshawar Press Club on 29 June 2006 to foil a news conference being held there by dissident leaders of the party. The intruders, who were armed with Kalashnikovs, pistols and sticks, beat journalists and the dissident party members.
The press club was attacked as PML-Q’s dissident bloc president Haji Ulas Khan and fellow party dissidents Zikria Khan and Ihsanullah were to hold a press conference. When journalists asked the intruders to leave the club premises, they and dissident party members were beaten.
A police team reached the venue after the attack and arrested six intruders.
The management of the club lodged a complaint against provincial PML-Q President and Federal Minister Amir Muqam, Provincial Information Secretary of the party Nighat Orakzai, and heads of the party’s youth, labour and students wings for the attack.
The Peshawar Press Club announced a boycott of PML-Q functions and their press releases, and decided to cancel the membership of any club member who covers any PML-Q event.
Members of the club and the Khyber Union of Journalists announced that they would not negotiate with any PML-Q leader until those named in the criminal complaint were arrested. They held a protest walk to the chief minister’s secretariat and staged a sit-in.
