Two Srinagar-based journalists were beaten up by the police in Srinagar on Tuesday afternoon. The incident occurred outside the Islamia College in downtown Srinagar, where a protest had erupted earlier in the day. Several journalists reached the spot after the protest had fizzled out. This was when Anees Zargar, who works for NewsClick, and Azaan Javaid, a journalist with The Print, spotted the police dragging two young men to a police vehicle parked outside the college.

They started filming the incident. When the police noticed them, Zargar says, he was confronted by Rashid Khan, station house officer at Rainawari police station. “We were on our way back [from the spot] when we saw the police detaining the boys and took pictures on our phones. That agitated him,” Zargar told Newslaundry.

While Zargar argued with Khan, Javaid sought the intervention of a senior police officer nearby.  A video of the incident, uploaded on Twitter by journalist Aakash Hassan, shows Javaid being pushed by armed policemen. Moments later, they start slapping him aggressively.