J&K Police lathicharge journalists covering Muharram procession in Srinagar

Police on Tuesday lathicharged and thrashed a group of journalists covering a Muharram procession here evoking criticism from various quartersPolice also detained a few Shia mourners at Jehangir Chowk in the city as they tried to take out a procession to mark the eighth day of the 10day Muharram mourning periodThe traditional Muharram procession used to pass through the areas of Abi Guzar Lal Chowk and Dalgate areas but has been banned since the eruption of militancy in 1990 as authorities maintain that the religious gathering has been used for propagating separatist politicsInspector General of Police Kashmir Vijay Kumar said police respects the religious sentiments of the public but at the same time it is their joint responsibility to defeat the ill designs of vested interests who try to disturb the peaceful atmosphereAs the media personnel mostly photo and video journalists were discharging their professional duties police swung into action and lathicharged them the scribes saidThey said the policemen armed with batons also thrashed some of the journalists and caused damage to their equipmentThe pictures and the videos of the incident were uploaded on various social media forums as the journalists protested the police actionA senior police officer reached the spot and assured the journalists that he we will look into matterKashmir Press Photographers Association KPPA condemned the use of force by policeldquoKPPA terms the action unjustified and uncalled for It is highly unfortunate that the police was thrashing the photojournalists and stopping them from performing their professional dutiesrdquo a statement from the photojournalist body saidMeanwhile National Conference NC vice president Omar Abdullah said the police action was unfortunate and expressed hope that Jammu and Kashmir LG Manoj Sinha will ensure such incidents are not repeatedVery unfortunate to see JampK police personnel mercilessly thrashing journalists in Srinagar These people were simply doing their jobs reporting the news They dont make the news amp they dont engineer events to create the story I hope OfficeOfLGJandK will ensure no repeat Abdullah said on TwitterHe also demanded that an independent photojournalist be compensated for the loss as his equipment was damaged allegedly in the police actionldquoHes an independent photojournalist His camera is his livelihood The administration owes it to Sajad to compensate him for the loss he has suffered while workingrdquo the NC leader saidPDP president Mehbooba Mufti also took to Twitter to highlight the issueldquoMedia is spending hours debating the human tragedy amp unfolding crisis in Afghanistan but will they speak up for their own community in Kashmir who were beaten to pulp today by security forces for doing their jobrdquo Mufti tweetedThe Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee JKPCC termed the thrashing of media persons as ldquounfortunaterdquoMedia is fourth pillar of democracy and the routine coverage as part of its professional obligation must be allowed they should not be intimated while performing their duties the party said in a statementJKPCC feels disappointed over the thrashing of mediapersons who were covering Muharram procession and expresses its full solidarity with the media fraternity it saidThe party urges the government to ensure that mediapersons are allowed to perform their duties without any fear it addedThe Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference JKPC led by Sajad Lone too condemned the police actionldquoMerciless beating of journalists is highly condemnable We express serious concern over such repeated acts of use of force on the media fraternity without any accountability Surprisingly the upholders of the law are out to demolish the founding principles of lawrdquo the JKPC said in a tweetApni Party senior vice president Ghulam Hassan Mir termed the thrashing of mediapersons as undemocraticIn a statement issued here Mir said media is the fourth pillar of democracy and the coverage of routine happenings is a part of their professional obligation that must not be dissuaded with the use of force or any sort of intimidationldquoTodays incident in which journalists allege that they were thrashed by police while doing their duty is extremely unwarranted These journalists were performing their usual professional duties These kinds of occurrences need to be stopped as it taints democratic ethos of our countryrdquo he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever