Raid reversed: Mill owners thrash food controller, journalists

District govt official had gone to inspect the ‘fake’ oil mill with a media team.

ISLAMABAD:

A food controller and three media persons were beaten up by owners of a “fake oil and ghee mill” in Tarlai on Wednesday, according to the police. The owners also kept one of the media persons — a cameraman — in illegal confinement for over an hour, the police said.

After the police were alerted about the incident, they reached the spot and were able to free the cameraman. Police took the food controller and journalists to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for medical treatment.

By the time of the filing of this report, the police did not confirm if a case had been registered against the mill owners. The authorities did not say if the owners of the mills had been arrested for injuring the food controller.

District Food Controller Muhammad Sadiq had gone to conduct a raid at the oil mill around 2:30pm. He was accompanied by reporters and a camera crew of a private news television channel.

An employee of the television channel, who requested anonymity, told The Express Tribune that as soon as Sadiq entered the mill, thugs of the owners hit him on the head. Sadiq was badly injured by the blow. The thugs then pounced on the reporters and camera crew, the employee said.

He said the owners confiscated a TV camera and another photo camera that belonged to a reporter of a print publication.

The police said the owners locked up the cameraman and beat him up for an hour and a half. The extent of the injuries the cameraman received was not clear but the employee said the owners threatened the journalists with a display of weapons.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2013.