Mysure: Members of the Hindu Jagran Vedike (HJV) assaulted an Urdu journalist in Mysuru on Thursday. The organisation was protesting the demolition of temples at the North Gate of the Mysuru Palace as well as the breaking down of the Adishakti Mahadevamma temple at Huchgani village.
While covering the protest, Mohammed Safdar Kaiser, chief editor of the local newspaper ‘The Daily Kausar’, was assaulted by a group of right-wing mob who raised an objection to the event being recorded. They demanded Kaiser to delete the recording and manhandled him on the spot, according to the police.
Kaiser was aided by the police who were present at the protest site who took him inside a room near the Kote Anjaneya Swamy temple in front of the Mysuru palace premises while the activists attempted to hit him with sticks, reported The Indian Express.
Kaiser lodged a complaint at the Devaraja police station in the city. Meanwhile, the president of Mysore District Journalist Association (MDJA) S T Ravikumar condemned the attack, wrote to the police commissioner demanding action against the assailants, and demanded more security for journalists during such protests.
“I was there to cover the protest and was recording a video like other reporters. A few protesters asked me for my identity card and I asked them why they are asking only me? They didn’t listen to me and started attacking me,” Kaiser told The Indian Express.
The national general secretary of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) Abdul Majeed demanded the arrest of those who assaulted the journalist.
In a statement issued on Friday, Majeed who severely condemned the incident said that the rise in incidents of Sangh Parivar workers assaulting journalists makes for a dangerous development in the country and State.
“Now, a journalist in Mysuru is also attacked. The police were also not spared in the incident and it shows that the Sangh Parivar workers are indulging in disturbing peace and law and order. If the journalists don’t have security, what would be the fate of common people?” he added.