Freedom of press?: Journalist registers FIR against attackers

Reporter says MQM workers tried to stop me from covering incident and snatched camera and beat me up.

HYDERABAD: Five workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement have been nominated in an FIR registered by journalist Muneer Chohan against their alleged involvement in an attack on him. According to SHO Asad Parehar, the suspects, Ali Hassan Rajput, Abid Rajput, Khalil Rajput, Abdul Qayum Rajput and Nana Mugheri have been booked but the police have yet to make arrests. Chohan complained that he was covering a clash between the Rajput and the Panhwar communities in Bhit Shah on Tuesday when he was attacked. “They tried to stop me from covering the incident and, later, snatched the camera and beat me up.” Chohan, a reporter of Mehran TV and the general secretary of Bhit Shah Press Club, claimed that he has been receiving life threats from the suspects, who had warned him against registering an FIR. Meanwhile, several nationalist parties observed a strike in Bhit Shah on Wednesday to protest the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2014.