‘Pakistani police attack journalists attempting to cover rape allegations’
RAWALPINDI (BNO NEWS) — Two journalists were attacked by police officers in northern Pakistan on Wednesday when they attempted to cover a story involving police officers who allegedly tried to rape a girl.
Geo News Television reported that one of its reporters and a cameraman had arrived at Benazir Bhutto Hospital in the city of Rawalpindi to cover the story of a girl who had reportedly slit her throat during a rape attempt by police officers.
The channel said officers were working with the alleged attacker to stop Geo News from reporting the story, which police allegedly tried to cover up as a suicide attempt. “Cops were pressuring the hospital administration to discharge the girl even in this critical condition,” Geo TV reported on its website.
Geo TV said police officers inflicted ‘serious bodily harm’ on the reporter and his cameraman, although it gave no details about their injuries or their conditions. The channel said the officers had also destroyed their equipment.
Police were unavailable for comment.
Several journalist groups have labeled Pakistan as one of the most dangerous, if not the world’s most dangerous, place for media professionals. According to the Rural Media Network, a Pakistani non-governmental organization, more than a dozen journalists were killed in the country last year.
Most notably in 2011, the Pakistan Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online, Syed Saleem Shahzad, was found dead in northeastern Pakistan in late May. Human rights organizations and the U.S. government have accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency of carrying out the murder, although the Pakistani government rejected those accusations.
The United Nations and other organizations have said Pakistani authorities have failed to properly investigate the murders and disappearances of journalists.
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