Fifteen media persons were on Sunday injured when they were allegedly assaulted by security personnel while moving around to report events in curfew-bound Srinagar, Hindustan Times has reported.
The Srinagar-based mediapersons working for local, national and international news organisations had to face the wrath of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who refused to "honour" the curfew passes and accreditation cards of journalists and beat them up.
Among the injured, NDTV cameraman Aimar, bureau chief of Sahara TV Bilal Ahmed Bhat, his cameraman Muzaffar Ahmed, ETV cameraman Jehangir, photo journalist of Tribune Mohammad Amin War, Firdous Ahmed of News X and Mukhtar Ahmed of Srinagar Mail were hospitalised, official sources said. The vehicles of photo journalists of Reuters Dinesh Ismail and EPA Farooq Khan were damaged.
The CRPF personnel did not even honour the orders of their superiors including public relations officer Prabhakar Triparthy to allow mediapersons to reach their offices, the journalists claimed. "We have issued orders to our men to allow journalists," Tipathy told PTI.
However, CRPF personnel deployed on roads in the city where curfew was imposed in the wee hours were in no mood to listen. "We have clear cut instructions not to allow the media persons. We will not talk to any officer of the force. Don't enter into argument and go home, otherwise we will teach you a lesson," a furious officer of the CRPF told a PTI journalist at Rambagh.
However, local police officers intervened and dropped the journalists near the office.
