21 October,2016 10:00 AM IST | | mid-day online correspondent
Video of female reporter being brutally slapped on live television by a Pakistani national guard goes viral inciting angry protests from people on social media
Watch video: Pakistani cop slapping woman reporter on live TV gets Twitterati raging
Videograb of Saima Kanwal in the middle of her live broadcast in Karachi, Pakistan, before the trooper hit her. Pic courtesy Twitter
A woman TV reporter was slapped by a constable in Karachi in a government office. The act was caught on the security camera and the footage went viral on social media, forcing authorities in Pakistan to order a probe.
Interior minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan ordered the inquiry after a female anchor for a local television channel was slapped by a Frontier Corps constable at the office of the National Authority for Database Registration (NADRA), officials said.
"Minister Khan has been informed about the incident and he has ordered an inquiry. A complete footage of the incident has been dispatched to him," officials were quoted as saying in the local media. The constable was also seen resorting to aerial firing to scare away the people who were present in the NADRA office at that time.
The viral video has divided Pakistan with many speaking out against the brutality of the security guard but also questioning the aggressive behaviour of the reporter as well. "Her behaviour was also not proper and she should not have provoked the guard," Fazil Jamali, the President of the Karachi Press Club, said.
The video shows the reporter, Saima Kanwal, and her cameraman trying to enter the NADRA office in Liaquatabad when she shouts loudly on camera that the guards were misbehaving with the people and also with her cameraman. The video shows her confronting the guard constantly and warning him to stay away from the cameraman.
Emphasising her right to report the news, Kanwal diverts her camera to the trooper, in a bid to shame him.
"Don't you have a mother or sisters? Don't you have shame treating people like this," the reporter asks the constable as she is seen tugging at his badge before he turns around and slaps her and shots are fired. The reporter, who works for the Karachi based K-21 channel, said she had gone to the NADRA office after getting complaints about the public facing hardships.
"Gulbahar police have registered a case against the FC personnel over charges of conducting aerial firing and assaulting modesty of the female reporter of K-21 TV channel by slapping her," police told Pakistani media.
The guard has now disappeared but a FIR has been filed against him on the complaint of the reporter. However, the police have also filed a counter FIR against the reporter on the complaint of the NADRA office head which charges her with obstructing official duty and tearing the uniform of the guard.
HERE'S THE VIDEO:
Twitterati reacted with anger at the cop's violent actions against a woman.
HERE'S WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY:
The journalist also took to Twitter to have her say. She claimed that she was attacked because of her gender and that she would prove that women weren't weak.
She felt the attack was on truth.
HERE'S A GUY WHO THINKS BOTH ARE IN THE WRONG
(With Agency Inputs)
