Demand registration of FIR against cop. PHOTO: FILE
Before the start of the session, an on-duty policeman allegedly attacked Mohammad Naeem, a staffer of Urdu daily Nai Baat, after a verbal exchange over a parking issue.
Naeem, who is the senior vice president of Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ) was injured as a result and rushed to Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) in a lawmaker’s vehicle in semi-conscious condition. He was undergoing treatment at the hospital till the filing of this report.
Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, along with other ministers, came out of the building to inquire after the journalist’s health and directed immediate action against the cop. Following the incident, members of the press gallery boycotted the assembly proceedings in protest.
Journalists were demanding registration of an FIR against the cop and his immediate arrest for torturing their colleague. KhUJ leaders and Peshawar Press Club (PPC) officials also reached the assembly premises later and condemned the police’s high-handedness.
Later, journalists thronged to LRH where leaders of KhUJ and PPC decided to boycott police department reporting and assembly proceedings till a joint committee of both bodies decides a future course of action on Saturday.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 18th, 2014.
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