Police open fire on photojournalists
ISLAMABAD- The police opened fire on press photographers in an attempt to stop them from taking snaps of a violent encounter between the law enforcement agencies and the villagers of Pind Sangrial and Sri Saral on the site of Sector D-12 near Golra.
The journalists, after having been stopped at a police- picket some three kilometres from the site, tried to reach the village from alternative routes. And, as they were returning, they came under fire from the police.
Tanveer Shahzad of Dawn and Waheed Ahmed of Business Recorder tried to identify themselves as members of the press, but when the firing did not stop even then, the two ran for cover.
Staff photographer of Dawn Tanveer Shahzad said: “After taking the snaps, I, along with Naveed Akram of The News, Geo Television cameraman Nadeem, Reporter Asif Bhatti and Waheed Ahmed of Business Recorder were returning when two policemen shouted abuses and simultaneously opened fire.”
“Luckily, the foot of the policeman slipped in the muddy terrain and the bullet missed. Then he fired another shot. I tried to identify myself by raising a camera and my hands but the policemen continued firing,” Tanveer said. The others were caught while reaching for safety.
Naveed Akram of The News said: “I was manhandled and kicked by the policemen who took my camera and destroyed the film.”
When the Senior Superintendent Police (SSP), Kalim Imam, was informed by the photographers that the policemen had opened fire on them, he said: “Had you not run, the police would not have opened fire on them.”
Another senior official standing close to the SSP said it was not sure if the men were photographers or not as earlier the villagers had opened fire from the same area from where the photographers were seen coming. The photographers should not have adopted the alternative route, the police official said, adding, it was a matter of law and order.
Earlier, when the crackdown was started against the villagers, the journalists were stopped some three kilometres away from the village.
As the vehicles were seen carrying the arrested villagers, a policeman in a police mobile van resorted to aerial firing in an expression of jubilation in front of the journalists.
“It is an expression of high spirits after arresting the culprits who had opened fire on police and injured their colleagues,” said Inspector Arshad who was assigned the task of stopping journalists from reaching the village.
When questioned, the policemen said the SSP had issued strict directives that no journalist should be allowed to reach the spot.
A local villager, who had managed to slip out of the police cordon, claimed: “The police is using brute force against the villagers and opening fire on the residents by entering their homes, beating men, women and children.”
As the press was not allowed to be on the spot, the only version available, apart from the official handout, was the villagers claim.
Earlier, the police had broken the cameras and destroyed films of a few photographers who had managed to reach the spot.
“The police have gone mad and a policeman even threw a six- month-old baby on the ground by snatching him from the mother,” a photographer, who was forced out from the spot said narrating an eye-witness account of the police action.
Giving an eye-witness account of the situation when the police action started, Abdul Hamid of Jang said the village presented a scene of grave human rights situation as excessive police force was used. Mr Hamid was also forced to leave the spot later.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/30/2002
” 
” 
” 
” 
” 
