HYDERABAD: Journa­lists held demonstrations and meetings in towns and cities across Sindh on Sunday to condemn the police action against media personnel covering PTI-PAT protests in Islamabad.

Participants raised slogans against police and demanded a thorough investigation into the incident and immediate arrest of those officers who had ordered action against reporters, TV cameramen and press photographers. They sought arrest of the policemen involved in the attacks.

The demonstrations were held in Hyderabad, Badin, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Daharki, Mirpurkhas and other talukas and districts.

The rally in Hyderabad was led by Junaid Khanzada and Javed Channa and attended, among others, by Hyderabad Press Club president Altaf Hussain Koti and secretary Mansoor Marri and office-bearers of the Pakistan Photojournalists Association.

They criticised police for beating up journalists and damaging their cameras.

They said that those who had damaged cameras and DSNG (digital satellite news gathering) vans of news channels should be immediately arrested. He said media personnel discharging their professional responsibilities had been assaulted with kicks, butts and batons. He asked why journalists who tried to present facts with objectivity of any incident were always subjected to maltreatment.

In Badin district, journalists held demonstrations outside press clubs in Matli, Golarchi, Talhar, Tando Bago, Tando Ghulam Ali, Pangrio, Shadi Large and other areas.

Addressing a rally in Shikarpur, senior journalists Waheed Phulpoto, Agha Younis Pathan, Kamran Siddiqui and Rahmatullah Soomro also condemned the killing in Quetta of Irshad Ali Mastoi, besides torture of journalists and cameraman in Islamabad.

District Bar Association president Aijaz Ali Shah and other office-bearers also condemned the attack on journalists.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2014