Alleged thrashing of journos’ evokes condemnation from Omar, Mehbooba, Cong, Hakeem

Srinagar: Former Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, Apni Party Vice President Gh Hassan Mir, Congress party, Peoples Conference and Chairman Peoples Democratic Front (PDF) Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen Tuesday hoped that Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha will ensure journalists in Valley are not thrashed again.
Leaders reacted after policemen led by an officer thrashed journalists mostly photo-journalists in the heart of Srinagar city when they were covering Muharram Procession.The incident occurred near Jahangir Chowk Srinagar.
“Very unfortunate to see J&K police personnel mercilessly thrashing journalists in Srinagar. These people were simply doing their jobs – reporting the news. They don’t make the news & they don’t engineer events to create the story. I hope @OfficeOfLGJandK will ensure no repeat,” Omar Abdullah tweeted. When a cameraman alleged that police personnel broke the lense of his camera, Omar Abdullah wrote: “He’s an independent photo-journalist. His camera is his livelihood. The administration owes it to Sajad to compensate him for the loss he has suffered while working.”
Another former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti also reacted after Journalists were thrashed in Srinagar. She took to her micro-blogging site and wrote: “Media is spending hours debating the human tragedy & unfolding crisis in Afghanistan but will they speak up for their own community in Kashmir who were beaten to pulp Tuesday by security forces for doing their job?”
Apni Party Senior Vice President Ghulam Hassan Mir termed the thrashing of media persons as undemocratic and uncalled for incident. Mir said the 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 intimidation. “Today’s 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 country,” he said. Mir urged the government to put a check on the use of power and order restraint in order to avoid hurting the innocent people who are in the line of their duty.
Reacting to the thrashing of Media Persons at Jehangir Chowk, J&K Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) has said that Media 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.JKPCC feels disappointed over the thrashing of media persons, who were covering Muharram procession and expresses its full solidarity with the fraternity(media), concomitantly the Party urges the Govt to ensure that media persons are allowed to perform their duties, without any fear, statement said.JKPCC understands that thrashing of media person is extremely shocking and uncalled for and demands that Govt should ensure that they are allowed to perform their duties.
Condemning the thrashing of journalists while covering a Muharram procession in Jahengir Chowk locality of Srinagar city the Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Conference on its official Twitter account termed police action “merciless” and expressed serious concern over such repeated acts of the use of force against media fraternity. “Merciless 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 law,” JKPC wrote on it’s twitter handle.
Condemning thrashing of media persons during media coverage of Moharram procession at Jahangir Chowk, the Chairman Peoples Democratic Front (PDF) Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen said that media is the fourth pillar of democracy which should be allowed to deliver its professional duty with out any brow beating. He said journalists highlight the problems and needs of people for redrassal from the government and deserves every respect and response from the administrative machinery. PDF Chairman also demanded a thorough probe into the unfortunate incident to book the guilt.