Police ransack Geo TV, The News office in Islamabad
KARACHI (updated on: March 16, 2007, 18:04 PST): The Punjab police on Friday left three staffers injured and almost the entire building ransacked of a TV channel and an English daily in a raid, for unknown reasons, in Islamabad.
Police, ransacking the entire infrastructure of the prominent media institutions, attacked the offices of Geo television and The News and beaten the staff on duty for which the reason can not be ascertained so far.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammed Ali Durrani has reached the spot and termed the police action totally unjustifiable and deplorable.
“No one reserves right to attack on a media broadcasting office and the action is unjustifiable.” said the minister pledging not to leave the office until the situation is under control.
President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz while condemning the attack pledged to investigate the matter in the light of the videos made by the effected TV channel of the police personnel involved in the attack, The minister quoted the president and prime minister as saying.
“The president and the prime minister have taken notice of the unfortunate event and vowed to bring to justice the culprits after probing the attack on the basis of videos made by the Geo TV.”
“We have ordered a probe into the matter and now everything will come on the surface within next half an hour,” the minister boasted.
“Police has destroyed the entire infrastructure of the two media institutions and have badly beaten the staff there on the duty inflicting an un-compensatiable damage to the media freedom in Pakistan,” lamented Kamran Khan, a politico-economic talk show icon, on live TV program.
The minister said the police attack on the offices of the media institutions would be investigated while lamenting stone pelting by some people.
The office of the Geo TV has been attacked and ransacked by the police personnel, eyewitness said.
Association of TV Journalists Pakistan has condemned the attack on Geo channel.
“The attack on Geo TV office has negated the claims of media freedom by the government,” said the Association.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:3/16/200
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