New Delhi, April 4 : Several journalists were assaulted by the Hindutva mob that went to cover Hindu Mahapanchayat being held in Delhi’s Burari ground. Meer Faisal, a journalist based in Delhi, said that he along with others were attacked when they went to cover the event.
I and @mdmeharban03 were beaten up because of our Muslim identity by Hindu mob. Communal slurs were shouted on me at Hindu mahapanchayat at Burari ground in New Delhi. We had gone there to cover the event. We were called jihadis and attacked for being Muslims.— Meer Faisal (@meerfaisal01) April 3, 2022
Another journalist Arbab Ali said @mdmeharban03 @meerfaisal01 @MeghnadBose93 and I had gone to cover the Hindu Mahapanchayat at Burari Ground in Delhi today. The event was called by Save India Foundation. Yati Narsinghanand, Pinky Choudhary, Sushil Tiwari, Suresh Chahvanke and Preet Singh were there. 1/n pic.twitter.com/z9bf9eIlUJ
— Arbab Ali (@arbabali_jmi) April 3, 2022 Journalists belonging to Newslaundry were also attacked.
Our reporter @shivangi441 and producer Rounak Bhat have been manhandled while covering the Hindu Mahapanchayat event at Burari, Delhi.
One of the provocations appeared to have been @shivangi441's report on hate speech slogans at Jantar Mantar last year.https://t.co/6GtUjO7PfZ — newslaundry (@newslaundry) April 3, 2022
A Delhi-based journalist had tweeted that he along with four journalists were detained by the police after two minority community journalists among them were assaulted by a mob present at the Burari ground in north west Delhi. In his tweet, he had alleged that ‘anti-Muslim’ hate speeches were given by the speakers present there.
A Kashmiri Pandit journalist was also thrashed by a right-wing mob while he was covering the Hindu Maha Panchayat at Delhi’s Burari ground.
Among the five were Shahid Tantray, Mohammed Meharban, Meer Faisal, Arbab Ali, and Meghnad Bose are the journalists targeted by the assailants. Shivangi Saxena and Rounak Bhat of News Laundry were also assaulted by the audience.
Rounak Bhat-a Kashmiri Pandit, who works with News Laundry was among the five journalists assaulted by the mob after being asked to disclose their identity. Four of the seven thrashed by the mob were Muslims.
Rounak was on an official assignment to cover Hindu Maha Panchayat in New Delhi’s Burari ground where Yati Narsinghanand, the main organizer of the Haridwar anti-Muslim genocidal event exhorted Hindus to pick up arms.
Speaking to media, Ronak said, “Around 1030, we reached to the event and then the person speaking on the mic addressed my fellow colleague (Shivangi) and we instantly left the spot out of fear.”
He said, “It was moments later that we got an update that some journalists were detained at the site of the Hindu Maha Panchayat. We rushed to the spot and upon reaching the spot, a mob of around 10-15 people rounded Shivangi and me and started hurling verbal abuses at us. I took out my camera to record this, only to be rounded up by more men who then snatched away my camera.”
Ronak said that the mob assaulted him physically and trampled over his glass.
“They snatched my equipment and continued thrashing me till the Police came,” Rounak told media. The two were later taken to the Police station, where the duo filed a complaint against the assailants.