Srinagar, Nov 8 (KNS): Police Sunday detained and thrashed a reporter of a local English daily while he was covering protests in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
Owais Farooqi, a reporter who works for English daily Kashmir Reader, said that he was detained by police when he was performing his professional duties in Gulshan Chowk in the district where protests were held against the killing of Gowhar Ahmad Dar, who was killed on Saturday in Srinagar outskirts here.
“Police thrashed me despite I showed to them my reporter identity card. Police were chasing protesters and they held me even though I told them I am a reporter,” he said, adding the police detained him in police station and bet him there.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
Senior Superintendent of Police Bandipora Shabir Choudary told KNS that it was a mistake by police to detain the reporter.
“Police was chasing protesters at the spot and they mistook the reporter as a protestor. He carried neither a camera not an identity card. He was wearing pheran. But when he told the police in police station that he was a reporter, he was released,” the SSP told KNS, refuting that police beat up the reporter. (KNS)