*FIR registered against Coy musclemen
Excelsior Correspondent
RAJOURI, Jan 15: The journalists in Rajouri today held demonstration and blocked road at Gujjar Mandi Chowk here in protest against attack on their colleague by some musclemen of a construction company engaged on Rajouri-Thannamandi-DKG-Bafliaz road.
Sources said that some people who were protesting against the Dharamraj Construction Company at Thannamandi town for not clearing road for two days and also not providing alternate service road to the public, called media-persons to cover the incident. SDM and Tehsildar Thanamandi had also reached the spot to pacify public.
When the media-persons were covering the protest demonstration, some musclemen of the construction company, Dharamraj Constructions attacked senior journalist and Member Press Club, Rajouri- Imran Khan and 2-3 other scribes. They also tried to snatch cameras of some media-persons in presence of senior officials, SDM and Tehsildar. Imran received serious injuries on ear and stomach. The protesting people and some journalists came to the rescue of Imran and then shifted him to hospital. Click here to watch video
Later, when journalists at Rajouri came to know about the incident of attack on media men by some `hired goons’ of the construction company at Thanamandi, they came out on the road and started protest at Gujjar Mandi Chowk. They said how the hired musclemen of the Company attacked media-persons in presence of SDM/Tehsildar and policemen. They demanded action against the musclemen of the company, registration of an FIR and their immediate arrest. The traffic at busy Chowk remained disrupted for some time.
Later, ASP Rajouri Vivek Shekhar and ADC along with SHO reached the spot and they assured action in this regard. Avinash Jasyal, president and Arif Qureshi, Chairman of Press Club Rajouri were leading the protest. They also spoke to DC Rajouri and sought strict action against the company for harassing general public and terrorising media-persons in the district.
Meanwhile, Thanamandi Police has registered a case FIR No. 9/ 2022 against Mushraq Khan, Gulzar Hussain and others in connection with the attack on journalists performing their legitimate duty and causing serious injuries to one of them during public protest at Thanamandi town against blockade of road by the company people.
Meanwhile, Press Club of Poonch, Mandi and Mendhar have strongly condemned the incident and demanded immediate arrest of the accused persons.
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