April 14, 2007	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1428

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KARACHI, April 13: Sixteen journalists working for television channels and newspapers were injured, some of them seriously, in a clash with members of the Karachi Bar Association here on Friday.

The clash occurred as members of the KBA were marching from the city courts to the Quaid-i-Azam’s mausoleum to form a human chain as a mark of solidarity with Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

When the processionists reached Tibet Centre, on the M.A. Jinnah Road, a man riding a motorcycle (LOF 2603), who claimed to be a lawyer but was not dressed in the distinctive black and white, hit the car of a journalist, damaging the indicator.

After the journalist complained to the man, the latter beat him up. Intervention by senior lawyers, however, had a calming influence.

When the journalists reached the Numaish Chowrangi (near the Quaid’s mazar) they raised slogans of `boycott, boycott’ to register their anger over the lawyers’ attitude.

Hundreds of policemen watched the happenings in silence. “It is a matter between lawyers and journalists and they themselves can solve it,” one official said.

The injured journalists were later moved to the Press Club and then to a hospital. But doctors on duty at the hospital asked the newsmen to first file a complaint with the police. The journalists complied, filing an FIR at the Soldier Bazaar police station.

Court reporters have called a meeting on Saturday at the Sindh High Court to take stock of the situation.

Names of some of the injured journalists are: Irfan-ul-Haq, Amer Singh, Faizullah, Numan Rafiq, Javaid Umrani, Tariq Aziz, Mudassir Aziz, Kashif Nizami, Matiullah Tariq, Mohammad Khan.

The injuries suffered by Kashif Nizami, Irfan-ul-Haq, Tariq Aziz and Amer Singh were serious, according to doctors.