ST Correspondent
SRINAGAR: Men of the Chief Minister’s Special Security Group (SSG) roughed up a journalist when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was on his first major tour of his Assembly constituency in Anantnag on Saturday.
Informed sources told STATE TIMES that Mufti was making an inspection of the site where an additional block of District Hospital Anantnag is planned to come up later this year when a group of the local mediapersons attempted to interact with Chief Minister. The SSG men blocked the mediapersons’ way and allegedly roughed up Fayaz Ahmad Lolu of New Delhi-based television news channel Sahara Samay. His camera was reportedly damaged in the scuffle.
Eyewitnesses said that the mediapersons joined by some angry residents shouted slogans and started hooting in protest. President of Anantnag Working Journalists Association S. Tariq, Vice President Tassaduq Rasheed and General Secretary Saahil Suhail registered a strong protest with the authorities.
The angry journalists blocked the way of CM’s cavalcade on return. Senior PDP leader and Minister of Horticulture Abdul Rehman Veeri made an unsuccessful attempt to resolve the matter but the mediapersons remained unrelenting. They insisted CM to take action against the “arrogant” SSG men and seek their apology. When the cavalcade was returning, the SSG men jumped out and removed the journalists forcibly. Chief Minister proceeded towards Srinagar without speaking to media.
Tassaduq Rasheed told STATE TIMES that there was “total mess and communication gap” between the officials and media during the CM’s visit. He alleged that Deputy Commissioner Bashir Ahmad Khan remained insensitive to the whole episode. Suhail made an appeal to international organizations protecting journalists all over the world to take a strong note of the incident.
However, a senior journalist insisted that Chief Minister or any other person cannot be forced to speak to media or give his byte to any journalist. He described the SSG men’s action as “aggressive” and said that CM’s security staff should have convinced the media amicably.
Director of Information Munir-ul-Islam maintained that he had “no knowledge” of the Anantnag episode as he was preoccupied in Srinagar with the arrangements of CM’s lunch with media on Sunday. Incharge Director SSG Syed Ahfadul Mujtaba played it down as “an insignificant incident”. He said that the SSG men acted and cleared the way while pushing the journalists aside as per the specified security drill. “We cannot allow anybody to block the CM’s way”, he said.
