The investigative reporting team of ARY News, a private TV in Pakistan, was arrested and criminally charged for an exposé on the transport of illegal arms and ammunition on state owned railways.
This statement was originally published on pakistanpressfoundation.org on 5 December 2014.
The investigative reporting team of a private television channel in Pakistan was arrested and criminally charged on December 3, 2014 for an exposé on the transport of illegal arms and ammunition on state owned railways. ARY
News said two of its investigative journalists, Asif Qureshi and Zulqarnain Sheikh, were not only arrested but also assaulted by the Railway Police.
The Sar-e-Aam television programme broadcast on the ARY News television channel produced a report on the transport of weapons and explosives carried out with the connivance of corrupt railway officials.
Instead of investigating the serious security lapse, the railway authorities registered a case of arms smuggling against
the media team itself.
ARY News said its programme caught railway officials taking bribes to transport illegal weapons from Karachi to Lahore.
General Manager of the Railways, Javed Anwar, later told the journalists that the railways employees who are guilty of aiding in the transport of arms and explosives had been suspended.
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) President Rana Azeem and Secretary General Amin Yousuf
strongly condemned the attack and demanded that the case against the media team be withdrawn immediately.
