A senior journalist was hospitalised after he was brutally assaulted by BJP leaders while covering a protest in Kathua district of Jammu region in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to protets by the journalist community in Jammu and Kathua. According to Kashmir Media Service, senior journalist, Rakesh Sharma, who is a reporter of Dainik Jagran was hospitalised after he was assaulted while covering a BJP protest over Pahalgam incident at Kalibari chowk in Kathua district.

The journalist community has strongly condemned the attack on the reporter and demanded registration of an FIR against the accused BJP members. A purported video of the incident, showing the assault on the scribe, has gone viral on social media. The injured reporter said he was covering a BJP protest led by legislators Devinder Manyal, Rajiv Jasrotia and Bharat Bhushan when a party activist Himanshu Sharma accused the journalists of speaking the “separatist language” for raising questions related to security which is the domain of the BJP leader home ministry Amit Shah.

 In the meantime, he said BJP activist Himanshu was joined by many others BJP members including Ravinder Singh, Ashwani Sharma, Manjit Singh, Tony and Parveen Chuna and they pounced and roughed him in full public view. Sharma said he was saved by the Deputy Superintendent of Police Ravinder Singh who later admitted him to Government Medical College hospital for treatment.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)