LAHORE: A group of Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf (PTI) workers on Thursday thrashed a reporter of a local TV channel when he was covering the public gathering of the party at Minar-i-Pakistan.

A group of the PTI workers turned offensive on seeing young reporter Khawar Mughal when he appeared with the logo of 92 TV channel at the public meeting venue.

Eyewitnesses said the workers attacked Khawar Mughal, tortured him and snatched from him the TV logo.

They said the offenders alleged the TV channel was airing anti-PTI programmes and they would not allow it to cover the event of their party.

Some journalists stepped forward to help the reporter but the party workers kept on using abusive language and warned that they would treat all those media persons who were not supporting the PTI the same way.

Eyewitnesses said one of the attackers was a habitual offender who threatens and tortures the media persons who the party blames run anti-PTI news stories and programmes.

Earlier, Neo News senior journalist Nasruallah Malik also faced the wrath of the PTI workers in Lahore when he was covering the event of the party. Khawar Mughal said it was the second time that he was attacked by the PTI workers and demanded police action against them.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2022