Justice served: Police arrest man accused of attacking journalist

ABBOTABAD:

Police have arrested one of the attackers who allegedly manhandled and injured a local journalist, claimed Headquarters ASP Faisal Mukhtar at a news conference on Friday.

Sardar Shafiq was on his way home on the night of October 10, when some unidentified men intercepted and thrashed him. The newsman was seriously injured, with a broken nose and teeth, and head injuries. Later, the journalist fraternity launched a protest movement across Hazara region and set up camp in Abbottabad, demanding the immediate arrest of the attackers.



According to the ASP, the police interrogated several suspects after registration of the FIR. Hazrat, a resident of Khakhriala, confessed he and another accomplice thrashed Sardar Shafiq.

The ASP said Hazrat was involved in running a brothel and selling drugs in a house situated in the same locality where Shafiq lives. When Shafiq wrote about his activities in different newspapers, it infuriated Hazrat, who decided to teach him a lesson. The SP heading the investigation, Shah Nazar Khan, said the other accused involved in attacking the journalist was at large and the police would arrest him shortly.

On October 12, Ayub Khattak, a journalist, was shot dead outside his house in Takht Nusrati, Karak district by unidentified assailants. According to police, Khattak had just stepped outside of his house when the attack took place, while eyewitnesses said two gunmen on a motorbike had been waiting for Khattak outside his house.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th,2013.