Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Thursday ordered an inquiry into a raid carried out by Islamabad police at the National Press Club (NPC), where several journalists were allegedly attacked.
Visuals aired on DawnNewsTV showed policemen armed with batons attacking journalists on the press club premises. Visuals shared on social media also showed police dragging journalists out of what appeared to be the cafeteria.
Another video shared by a Dawn.com correspondent showed a journalist holding his broken Nikon camera and his shirt ripped across the back.
A statement issued by Naqvi stated that he had taken notice of the “unfortunate” incident and demanded a report from the Islamabad inspector general of police.
“Violence against the journalist community cannot be tolerated under any circumstances,” he was quoted as saying. “Disciplinary action must be taken against officials involved in the incident,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) President Afzal Butt held a press conference alongside Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry at the National Press Club.
He said that during the police raid, when the press club’s office-bearers tried to intervene and resolve the matter, they were “beaten and tortured”.
“They even arrested two people, who were later released,” Butt added.
He added that multiple people at the scene pointed out that they had to get the police to release them. “Today’s incident is a matter of now or never for us,” Butt said.
He announced that the PFUJ had called an “emergency session”, where “we will consult and chalk out our demands about what the government needs to do to prevent what the police did today.
“We will also decide our course of action and announce it after the meeting.”
Butt said, “We always avoid confrontation with political parties. Our friends were very angry … but I controlled them … Something like this has never happened before.
“That you enter a photographer’s house — the press club is their second home […] that you enter his home without permission, beat him and break his camera and mobile phone. This has never happened before.”
Butt alleged that even the members of the press club’s management and its office-bearers were “beaten”.
“This is not only the Islamabad press club’s issue. Press clubs across Pakistan are of the view that if they turn a blind eye to this worst of the worst incident, similar incidents could happen in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta.
“That is why we will first consult our friends here and then across Pakistan. We will then decide our plan of action and put forward our demands.”
For his part, Chaudhry said he condemned the incident and apologised for it. “Please consider this when you hold your meeting,” he said, assuring that he was also ready to meet them again after their meeting.
Chaudhry’s office also issued a statement unconditionally apologising for the incident, adding that it happened “suddenly”.
“Some people from the [JAAC] were protesting [and] some of their people had manhandled police personnel,” the statement read. “When they tried to arrest these people, the police chased them. The police came to the Press Club to arrest the protesters who misbehaved with [officers].”
The statement added that Chaudhry had ordered an internal inquiry into the incident.
Meanwhile, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar called the incident “regrettable” in a statement, vowing that a comprehensive investigation would be carried out.
“Interior Minister Naqvi did not order police to enter the press club,” he was quoted as saying. “The National Press Club is my home and I stand with it,” he said.
Journalist bodies held another press conference at the NPC later, where Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists President Tariq Virk said journalists across the country stood united after the police raid at NPC.
He alleged that “Islamabad police personnel had not come to the press club on their own accord but were sent here”.
“They inflicted violence on journalists inside the press club. They even tortured and arrested an ailing employee of the club,” he alleged, vowing to “adopt such a plan of action” that nobody would resort to this “rogue behaviour” in future.
PFUJ President Butt said today was one of the “darkest days in Pakistan’s history”.
“The attack on the National Press Club was an attack on media freedom,” he said, adding that members of journalist bodies had participated in the meeting held after the police raid. “We will prepare a strategy after consulting all journalist bodies.”
Butt further stated that journalists in other cities had also protested the raid at NPC and that “if the National Press Club was not safe from police, then no other press club was”. Butt reiterated his allegation that cameras and mobile phones were snatched and broken during the incident.
He announced that a “black day” would be observed across the country tomorrow, and black flags would be hoisted at the press clubs all across Pakistan.
“The journalists are very angry at the moment. It has been suggested that we get first information reports registered in which some bigwigs are nominated,” he said.
Journalist’s account of raid
Journalist Shiraz Gardezi, who is associated with Geo News and also the senior joint secretary of the NPC, shared an account of the raid with Dawn.com.
Gardezi said the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC) — which has also been holding demonstrations in Azad Kashmir — had issued a call for a protest at the press club. “As soon as the demonstration began, they (police) surrounded the protesters,” he narrated.
Gardezi, who was at the NPC to cover the protest, said police stopped them from doing so. “Because they were torturing, beating and dragging people,” he alleged, adding that they even tried to snatch mobile phones and cameras from some of the journalists.
According to him, they even dragged and tried to take away some of the journalists with them, but they were let go after some other journalists intervened.
“We then asked the journalists to stay on the back foot and keep themselves safe,” he said.
Later, he continued, “We heard loud bangs while sitting inside the press club. They (police) kicked the doors open and stormed inside”.
Shirazi narrated that the police broke various things in the cafeteria and “beat and tortured” people. This time, too, the police tried to take away some journalists, but they were “rescued”.
