J&K: Kathua journo assaulted while covering BJP protest over terror attack

JAMMU : A senior journalist was assaulted, leading to his hospitalisation, while covering a protest by BJP on Wednesday over the Pahalgam terror attack in Kathua district of Jammu & Kashmir.

The BJP was protesting against the horrific incident at Kalibari Chowk in Kathua when Dainik Jagran reporter Rakesh Sharma was assaulted by party activists for raising questions over security in the state.

A video of the assault went viral on social media on Wednesday evening.

As per Sharma, party activist Himanshu Sharma accused journalists of speaking “separatist language” by raising questions related to security. Himanshu’s repeated remarks were objected to by the journalists at the venue, who decided to boycott the protest and left.

Narrating his ordeal, Sharma revealed that Himanshu was joined by many others, including Ravinder Singh@Thella, Ashwani Sharma, and Manjit Singh in the assault he faced.

A group of senior journalists later met SSP, Kathua, Shobhit Saxena and sought appropriate action against the men. Staging a protest, Kathua journalists also announced they would boycott all BJP programmes till the party took action against those involved in the incident.

Some journalists also protested outside the Press Club Jammu.