Indian policemen on Monday gave Gowhar Bhat, a reporter for the Greater Kashmir daily, a beating on a street in Srinagar, the capital of the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF).
Led by Sub-Inspector Javaid Ahmad of the Kothibagh district police station, the policemen attacked Bhat while he was covering a People’s Democratic Party demonstration.
“I was covering the demonstration when a policeman came up and slapped me for no reason,†Bhat told Paris-based RSF. “I told him I was a journalist but he did not calm down. A dozen of his colleagues surrounded me and hit me with their batons.†Two journalists who tried to help him were also beaten.
“The policemen responsible for this gratuitous violence against a journalist must be punished,†RSF said.
