Attacks – Journalists

DNA photographer Pravin Indrekar was among the people who were brutally assaulted by police personnel during the violence at Chharanagar last night. This even after he identified himself as a media-person trying to do his job. Indrekar, whose camera was also damaged in the attack, will be out of action for a few weeks. He recounts the horrible night:

I had gone to sleep when I received a call just before 1 am from my daughter. This was unusually late, and I was not prepared for what she was about to tell me. In a quivering voice, she told me about police personnel slamming on the doors of her house and damaging vehicles parked outside. She said that dozens of policemen were running amok in our locality.

I rushed out of home in a state of panic, albeit with my camera to capture photographs of the violence. I had clicked just a few pictures when some policemen spotted me and started questioning me about who I was and why I was clicking the photos.

I explained to them that I work with a newspaper and am clicking the pictures as a part of my duty as a press photographer. But they were in no mood to listen. Three or four of them surrounded me and started assaulting me with sticks, even as I kept pleading them to stop. They also kicked me a number of times.