Attack on press club: Seven PML-N workers turn themselves in

They were booked for thrashing journalists, ransacking the Central Press Club.

MIRPUR:

Seven workers of Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) Azad Kashmir chapter voluntarily handed themselves over to the police on Thursday, three days after a case was registered against them.

The workers had been booked for thrashing journalists and ransacking the Central Press Club in Muzaffarabad after three Urdu dailies published reports defaming a senior member of the party. They also burnt copies of the Urdu dailies, one Rawalpindi-based and two local, in which the reports were published.

The men include Mubarik Awan, Raja Shujaat, Khawaja Azam Rasool, Asif Mustafi and Shafiq Inqlabi.

A senior PML-N worker, Barrister Iftikhar Gillani, who is also a member of the AJK Legislative Assembly, said the party members were told to surrender themselves to prevent the situation from aggravating further.

Following the attack on the press club, journalists took to the streets across Azad Kashmir, terming the incident an attack on the freedom of the press.

They demanded the Pakistan Peoples Party-led coalition government to arrest the accused within 24 hours. The Muzaffarabad police, however, did not arrest anyone but registered cases against 31 persons, including the seven nominated PML-N workers.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2012.