MYSURU: Tension prevailed when a Mysuru-based journalist of an Urdu daily and electronic media was roughed up and assaulted during a protest by Hindu Jagaran Vedike members against the demolition of temples in the city on Thursday.
Mohammed Safdar Khaiser, the chief editor of Kausar news, was thrashed while he was recording the speech of Hindu Jagaran Vedike leader Jagadish Karanth. He was questioned by the agitators and the vedike members who took objection to record the event. The agitators then surrounded and manhandled him demanding to delete the video.
Though the 49-year-old scribe informed the members that he was a journalist and had come to report the event, the protesters assaulted him with sticks in presence of cops.
The journalist was immediately rescued by the police and was taken to a room near the Kote Anjaneyaswamy temple in front of the Mysuru palace premises where scores of Hindu activists gathered to stage a protest against the recent demolition of a temple at Hucchagani village in Nanjangud taluk of Mysuru.
Several agitators said that they mistook him for an 'unknown' person inside the protest venue. The onlookers including several media persons claimed that they continued hitting him even after knowing he was a journalist.
Mysore District journalist Association (MDJA) condemned the incident and wrote to the city police commissioner Dr Chandragupta demanding action against the culprits. The association demanded security for journalists covering religious events.
The scribe has approached the police to register a complaint against the culprits who assaulted him.