April 17, 2006	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1427

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CHOA SYEDAN SHAH, April 16: Local journalists held a rally here on Sunday to protest the registration of criminal cases against two local reporters.

They condemned the police move and termed it a bid to gag the press and stop reporters from fulfilling their professional duties.

The rally was organised by the Divisional Union of Journalists (DUJ).

The two reporters had filed a story about a fire that broke out in a building during the anti-encroachment operation by the tehsil municipal administration on March 4.

The Kohistan mines workers federation Punjab, All Pakistan Federation of Labour and Choha Syedan Shah Bar Association also expressed their solidarity with the newsmen.

They urged the high-ups of federal and provincial government as well as the chief justice of Pakistan to take notice of the incident and order a judicial inquiry into the matter.

Chaudhry Farzand Ali, DUJ general-secretary, Malik Wazir Muhammad former president, Mirza Mahmud Jhelumi, member of DUJ, Khawaja Babar Saleem vice-president, Advocate Sibtul Hassan, Saeed Khattak chief organizer Kohistan Mines Workers Federation, Punjab, and others condemned the implication of newsmen in the criminal cases and sought their immediate withdrawal.

The journalists also announced to hold a peaceful rally in front of the parliament house if the issue was not resolved.

Earlier Syed Talah Farooq, a reporter working for an Urdu daily and a TV channel, briefed journalists at Chohah Syedan Shah Press Club about the episode that led to registration of cases against him and his brother.

On March 4 a team of TMA started cutting iron plates and bars of a shopping plaza using oxygen gas cylinders. The sparking during the process ignited a fire at the petrochemical material, foam and furniture inside the shops that engulfed the whole building while the fire brigade could not reach on time, Mr Talah said.

He further said that the owners of the shops were put behind bars by TMA before the operation thus the shops could not be opened instantly.

Mr Talah said that he and his brother Usman Talah, who is also a reporter, and news agent father Syed Farooq, were pressed hard and ‘offered money’ by the TMA to refrain from reporting the incident in the press and electronic media. But the incident was flashed in the TV news channel and the in the print media as well.

On March 5, the police registered cases against them along with the owners of plaza and shopkeepers under section 186, 188, 440, 148, 149 and 427 PPC.

The local newsmen accused the station house officer of Choha Syedan Shah police station of hurling threats to the journalists of dire consequences if they brought out rally against the TMA and the police.