Srinagar: A journalist was injured in intense protests in Meminder village in south Kashmir’s Shopian district where armed forces had launched a search operation after a militant attack this afternoon.
Several protestors hit the streets after army and special operations group (SOG) of police cordoned off the village after coming under a militant attack, witnesses cited by Kashmir Reader said.
The protesters, witnesses said pelted rocks at the armed forces to express their anger over the CASO. In retaliation, armed forces lobbed tear gas canisters and fired pellets.
In the ensuing clashes, a local journalist who works as a videographer with a New Delhi-based TV channel, identified as Aijaz Ahmed Dar was injured.
Dar was shifted to district hospital Shopian for treatment where a doctor said that he has suffered pellet injury in his head and neck.
“I produced my press identity cards and pleaded with the government forces but they didn’t listen. Instead, they showered pellets at me,” Dar was quoted by KR as having said.
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In a similar incident, journalists covering the gunfight in Fateh Kadal area of Srinagar city a week ago were physically assaulted and abused by the armed forces near the site of the gunfight on Wednesday.
The journalists were performing their professional duties when the SOG and CRPF personnel started hitting them. At least ten journalists were physically assaulted up by the forces.
While speaking to Free Press Kashmir, journalists who had been present at the scene said that they had been ‘beaten mercilessly in front of senior officers’.
Moreover, the images of three journalists in Kashmir being physically assaulted by the Jammu and Kashmir police and Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) surfaced a few days later.
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The three journalists working with Srinagar based Kashmir Walla, had reportedly been detained in Nawab Bazar area of Srinagar city. Eyewitnesses said that the forces beat them up badly and took them away in a Rakshak vehicle.
As the clashes between youth and the armed forces were reported from some areas of the city, the three journalists were outside the office premises when the forces barged at them.
The three journalists are identified as Online News Editor of the Kashmir Walla, Saqib Mugloo, Features Writer, Kaiser Andrabi and Multimedia Journalist, Bhat Burhan.
