Probe ordered after Islamabad police storm National Press Club, assault journalists
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Thursday ordered an inquiry into a raid carried out by Islamabad police at the National Press Club, 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 Islamabad press club’s issue. Press clubs across Pakistan are of the view that if they will 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 out 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.
‘Shameful and condemnable’
The incident sparked outrage on social media as journalists decried the assault. In a post on X, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemned the “assault on journalists by Islamabad police” at the National Press Club.
“HRCP strongly condemns the raid on the National Press Club and [the] assault on journalists by the Islamabad police,” the rights group wrote in a post on X. “We demand an immediate inquiry and those responsible brought to book.”
Journalist Hamid Mir stated that police were trying to arrest members of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) and that they had “targeted journalists present in the cafeteria”.
“This is totally uncalled for and condemnable,” said journalist Syed Talat Hussain.
“As if there aren’t enough fronts open. To treat the National Press Club as a criminal hideout and then use violence on its premises is madness without any method,” he said.
Journalist Matiullah Jan condemned the incident in a post on X, calling it “extremely shameful and condemnable”.
“This incident is [a product] of the incompetence and cowardice of the club administration,” Jan wrote. “The press club is the home of journalists, where it is disgraceful for the police to barge into the cafeteria with batons and attack people,” he said.
Journalist Anas Mallick, who works with TV channel Asia One, alleged that police had raided the club to arrest Kashmiri journalists covering a “call to protest” by the JAAC, adding that the police were “acting like thugs”.
Journalist Zebunnisa Burki called visuals emerging from the raid “insane” and added that journalists were being attacked by police inside the press club itself.
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Global News 
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