Police subjected an Aaj News reporter to torture for covering the purportedly unlawful closure of a sugar mills in Tando Muhammad Khan, Aaj News reported.

Quoting unnamed sources, the channel said that two years ago an influential personality of Sindh had tried to take over the mills, but its owners refused to sell it. After his failure to acquire the mills, he had it closed down through the Sindh government on “flimsy” grounds. However, a few weeks ago, Sindh High Court asked the mill owners to reopen the mills. When they complied with the court’s orders, a heavy contingent of police in armoured vehicles along with private security guards rushed to the mills and restrained the labourers from entering it. When an Aaj News team reached there, police stopped it from carrying out the coverage of labourers’ protest against the seemingly unlawful closure of the mills. Police severely manhandled Aaj News reporter Muhammad Ansar and deprived him of his cell phone and camera. He was also detained before being released on the intervention of journalists’ bodies and civil society members.

Assistant General Manager of Seeri Sugar Mills Moinuddin told the news channel that a police team was sent to close down the sugar mills on the directives of Sindh government. He alleged that they were being subjected to injustice. He called for secuirty in view of threats to his mills. He claimed that an `influential political personality’ had sought mills’ closure.

Business Recorder

“We note that the organizers of the ‘Freedom March’ have condemned these attacks but they must do more to control their supporters and ensure the safety of journalists covering the protests,” said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. “Whatever message demonstrators are trying to convey, it’s unlikely that beating reporters and news crews is going to do the job.”

At least four crew members from Aaj News, including digital satellite news gathering engineer Iqbal, cameramen Usmaan, Iqbal, and Samaarat, (identified by single names only) were beaten today by workers from the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party while covering a speech by PTI leader Imran Khan during a sit-in in the capital Islamabad, the private news channel reported. The four were treated in hospital for minor injuries, reports said.

Journalist and International Press Freedom awardee Umar Cheema, who has documented the attacks, told CPJ by email that those involved were PTI workers. News broadcasts showed the attackers wearing orange jackets that identified them as official workers who had been brought in to manage the march.

In recent days, tens of thousands of demonstrators have participated in the demonstration, which has traveled from Lahore to Islamabad, and was organized by the PTI and the anti-government cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri. The protesters are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over allegations of electoral fraud.

A Samaa TV crew were also harassed at the march by workers who confiscated their footage on Sunday after covering claims that a woman was harassed at the sit-in, according to news reports and tweets by Gharidah Farooqi, a journalist with the private news channel.

In a separate incident, journalist Babar Malik from the private news channel ARY News, was beaten by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supporters on Thursday while covering a rally that PML-N had organized to show solidarity with Sharif, according to reports. Local PML-N leaders Hanif Abbasi and Ziaullah Shah helped rescue Malik, who was bruised but not seriously injured during the attack in the Faizabad area of Rawalpindi. The news channel said he was attacked for having reported on the opposition rally.

Between August 15 and 16, several journalists and media workers from the privately owned Geo TV were also assaulted or harassed while covering the PTI-led rally, according to news reports and Cheema.

Along the route of the march a crowd began kicking and striking a Geo digital satellite news gathering van with batons while staff, including reporters Arshad Waheed and Farhat Jabeen, were inside. They warned the crew they would set fire to the vehicle if they did not leave the area within 10 minutes, according to reports.

Demonstrators snatched a mic from Geo reporter Azaz Syed when he was about to go on-air while covering the event from the Zero Point interchange in the capital, Islamabad. The demonstrators then surrounded Syed and forced him to flee, according to reports.

PTI party workers attacked Saif-ur-Rehman, another Geo journalist, forcing him to flee. As Rehman set up his mic, which displayed a logo for Geo TV, a group of men approached him from behind. One of them pounced on him and started yelling: “Get lost. You work for the traitor channel,” Cheema told CPJ. GEO TV cameraman Shabbir Ahmed had his camera broken by PTI workers and another cameraman, Khurram Shehzad, was beaten and had his equipment damaged, according to reports.

The PTI condemned the attacks on journalists and Khan apologized, according to news reports and the International Federation of Journalists. But The News International reported that Khan had criticized Geo News and the Jang group, Pakistan’s largest newspaper company, during a speech on Saturday night, saying: “You are making propaganda against me.”

In a separate incident, unidentified men who appeared intoxicated, attacked an ARY News team in Rawalpindi along the rally route from Lahore to Islamabad on August 14, according to the news channel. PTI party workers intervened and helped lead the crew, who have not been named, to a safer location. A driver for the channel, who was not named in news reports, was taken to a hospital to be treated for head injuries.

Committee to Protect Journalists

According to that letter, “Let the Aaj TV know about the bomb planted in its office. It will be detonated if it did not broadcast Sadiq Butt; will kidnap your wife and daughter…” “Ghulam Mustafa is innocent and it’s not his handwriting,” said the suspect’s brother, Sabir at his Multan residence, saying his brother had lost the identity card two months ago. Aaj TV learnt that Nadra issued him a new identity card on February 24, 2012.

The threat created panic across the TV channel and Business Recorder, bringing their daily editorial operations to a halt. The police immediately reached Aaj News head office. Bomb disposal squad was also called in to assist. According to the TV channel, in line with the initial investigation of law enforcing agencies, the suspect had been found threatening several institutions of exploding them with bombs.

He served a term of three-month in jail for being accused of threats. Ghulam Mustafa is a Multan resident whom police raided to nab but was missing from home for the last two days with no contacts with family, police say. The interior minister, Malik Habib took a notice of the incident. The Nadra has also confirmed both identity cards are original. The suspect’s brother, however, said that Mustafa is in Islamabad but having no phone contacts with his family.

Source: Business Recorder