SUKKUR: The Khairpur police registered an FIR against 16 reporters along with around 100 people, who were holding a protest in Hingorja against a lesser rate than the officially fixed price of cotton.

The journalists were covering the protest demonstration held outside a cotton factory when police arrived and started applying a baton charge on the protesters in an attempt to disperse them.

Sobho Dero Assistant Commissioner later proceeded to the venue and held negotiations with representatives of cotton growers. He succeeded in pursuing them to end their protest by facilitating negotiations between protesters and the factory management.However, in the evening the area police registered an FIR against 100 demonstrators and included 16 journalists among them. The booked journalists worked for several Sindhi newspapers and TV channels.

The police alleged that the journalists had joined in the protest by holding banners and tried to create a law and orders situation during the demonstration.

The booked journalists were Ghulam Hussain Chang, Jamal Mahmood Khuhro, Abdul Jabbar Chang, Fayyaz Solangi, Mr Manzoor, Zahid Samteo, Hakim Jokyo, Insaf Mangnejo, Zulfikar Sahito, Shaman Rajpar, Hakim Sahito, Arif Khaki, Altaf Sahito, Mehboob Sahito, Abdul Razzaq Lashari and Aziz Ahmed Memon.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Journalists Protection Commission has taken a serious notice of the police’s act of implicating journalists in the case.

The commission has assigned an inquiry to Fahim Siddiqui of the Karachi Union of Journalists.

Chairman of the commission Rashid A. Razvi has expressed his anger over the police’s act and home department’s non-cooperation to the commission.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2023