Private TV channel’s team attacked | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Private TV channel’s team attacked

Hazrat Khan Mohamed, Bureau Chief of private TV channel “ATV Khyber News” was injured when a team of their TV channel was attacked by unknown armed men on Monday, August 22, 2011 in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

The team was returning after enquiring about the health of Provincial Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak at Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, when some persons travelling in a car and on a motorbike intercepted their car near the Provincial Assembly Secretariat and Peshawar High Court and pelted it with stones. They also harassed the media team with aerial firing.

Mohamed received injuries in shoulder, head and ribs, while other team members included controller news Syed Waqas Shah, resident editor of recently launched Urdu daily “Akhbar-e-Khyber” Nisar Khan and manager technical Gul-Sher Khan remained unhurt. The injured was rushed to local hospital.

Yousaf Ali General Secretary of KhUJ told PPF that President of KhUJ Arshad Aziz Malik and he had sent a letter to the government, asking them to constitute a commission for an impartial inquiry into the incident to fix responsibility and award exemplary punishment to those involved in the gory incident. Ali said they had set September 15 deadline for the commission.

Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ), Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ), and scores of working journalists in different cities staged countrywide protest demonstrations against the incident and demanded immediate action against attackers.

Press reports said the provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar was engaged in a vilification campaign against the channel due to some differences and also filed a damages suit against the channel in the Peshawar High Court, besides submitting a privilege motion in the provincial assembly. Provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar, however, assured the journalists that a probe would be held into the matter.

Source: Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Date:8/24/2011