RAWALPINDI, Jan 18: A photo-journalist associated with a UK-based news agency was Thursday illegally detained and harassed by the Airport police for over three hours and released after a large number of journalists reached the police station.

Mian Khurshid, associated with the Reuters news agency, was picked up by traffic police as he was leaving the Islamabad International Airport for his office along with a group of journalists after covering the arrival of a delegation from Abu Dhabi.

A traffic sergeant flagged Mr Khurshid down on the orders of a senior police officer, who coming in a car behind him. As he stopped his car, the officer ordered the sergeant to remove Mr Khurshid along with his vehicle to the Airport police station. Mr Khurshid introduced himself to the officer as a journalist and asked him if he had committed any mistake but of no avail.

On reaching the Airport police station, a group of policemen started searching his car for some “dangerous weapon or an illegal item” but they failed to find anything objectionable. Later, he was not only asked to produce his driving license and national identity card but also ridiculed and cajoled.

One of the cops was quoted by a journalist as saying: “Carry out complete search of his car and find some weapons so that an FIR could be registered against him”. In the meantime, a large number of colleagues of Mian Khurshid reached the police station to secure his release.