(PPF/IFEX) – About fifty individuals attacked journalists in a rural press club on 14 June 2006, injuring six newsmen. The assailants, many of whom were on a tractor, barged into the press club in Thari Mirwah, a small town located in the Khairpur district of the southern province of Sindh, and started punching, kicking and […]
(PPF/IFEX) – About fifty individuals attacked journalists in a rural press club on 14 June 2006, injuring six newsmen. The assailants, many of whom were on a tractor, barged into the press club in Thari Mirwah, a small town located in the Khairpur district of the southern province of Sindh, and started punching, kicking and beating journalists with sticks. They ransacked the press club damaging furniture and equipment. The intruders chanted slogans against journalists.
According to local journalists, the attack was connected to a news story about the use of substandard material by contractors in the construction of irrigation water courses.
The journalists injured include Mumtaz Ali Shar, president of the press club and reporter for the Sindhi language daily “Khabroon”, Mehmud Ali Phul, reporter for “Kawish” daily and Kawish Television Network (KTN), Hafiz Baloch, reporter for Sindh Television Network, Safiullah, reporter for “Koshish” daily, Mukhtiar Qasmani, a correspondent for “Sham” daily, and Illahi Bukh, a reporter for “Sobh” daily.
The police were able to reach the press club in time to arrest a number of the attackers and subsequently filed criminal complaints against them. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has expressed concern over the attack and has appealed to journalists to wear black arm bands while covering the Sindh provincial assembly’s budget session on 15 June to protest the rising number of incidents of violence against journalists in the province.
