23 May 2004	Sunday	03 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

SWABI, May 22: The Swabi police beat up a number of youth after raiding Internet cafes in the Mohammad Sardar Khan market, it was learnt here on Saturday. The area is popularly known as Internet market.

The police contended that they had learnt that teenagers mainly frequented Internet cafes to visit pornographic sites which was against ethical and legal principles of the use of the Internet, adding that it was the responsibility of the police to discourage such a practice.

A few weeks ago, he said, they had warned the cafe owners to block obscene sites. He said: "No one will be allowed to access pornography."

But owners of Internet cafes rejected the police's notion that their premises were being used to access pornography, saying none of them (owners of Internet cafes) were violating any rules, adding they were not encouraging the use of Internet to access such sites.

One of the Internet cafe owner said that most of the Internet users were mature adults and they used Internet cafes only to access vital information.

Owners of Internet cafes told this correspondent that they discouraged teenagers from using their machines to access such websites.

They said that the attitude of the police during the raid was overly harsh and that they had beat up Internet users besides warning them of dire consequences.

Accusing the police of abuse, they said that if they had caught anyone accessing pornography they should be punished according to the law. They (the police) had no right to beat up the people without any fault, they added.

They said such an attitude would harm their financial position, adding that the people would be discouraged from using the Internet to access vital information.