SUKKUR: The Khairpur police registered an FIR against 16 reporters along with around 100
people, who were holding a protest in Hingorja against a lesser rate than the officially fixed price
of cotton.
The journalists were covering the protest demonstration held outside a cotton factory when
police arrived and started applying a baton charge on the protesters in an attempt to disperse
them.
Sobho Dero Assistant Commissioner later proceeded to the venue and held negotiations with
representatives of cotton growers. He succeeded in pursuing them to end their protest by
facilitating negotiations between protesters and the factory management.However, in the evening
the area police registered an FIR against 100 demonstrators and included 16 journalists among
them. The booked journalists worked for several Sindhi newspapers and TV channels.
The police alleged that the journalists had joined in the protest by holding banners and tried to
create a law and orders situation during the demonstration.
The booked journalists were Ghulam Hussain Chang, Jamal Mahmood Khuhro, Abdul Jabbar
Chang, Fayyaz Solangi, Mr Manzoor, Zahid Samteo, Hakim Jokyo, Insaf Mangnejo, Zulfikar
Sahito, Shaman Rajpar, Hakim Sahito, Arif Khaki, Altaf Sahito, Mehboob Sahito, Abdul Razzaq
Lashari and Aziz Ahmed Memon.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Journalists Protection Commission has taken a serious notice of the
police’s act of implicating journalists in the case.
The commission has assigned an inquiry to Fahim Siddiqui of the Karachi Union of Journalists.
Chairman of the commission Rashid A. Razvi has expressed his anger over the police’s act and
home department’s non-cooperation to the commission.

Source: Dawn