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Alert

Television crews beaten up by angry mobs

(PPF/IFEX) - Media crews from the Samaa and Business Plus television stations were assaulted and harassed by protesters in Karachi on 28 December 2009. The enraged mob was part of a Shiite religious procession that was rocked by a suicide bomb blast that killed 43 people and injured 120.

Those assaulted included Samaa cameraman Mudassar Hussain and assistant cameramen Abid Mughal and Zahid Ali and Business Plus reporter Salman Ahmed and cameraman Nouman Sonali.

Hussain told PPF that immediately after the blast, an angry mob pelted his crew with stones and charged at them with batons. He received injuries to his abdomen, one of his hands and his leg, while Mughal and Ali were bruised in the incident. The mob also seized and destroyed their camera.

Business Plus's Ahmed told PPF that they were in their vehicle on their way to the hospital where the dead and injured had been taken when an angry mob stopped them, then seized their camera and ran away with it. Several protesters beat them and threatened to kill them and burn their vehicle. Ahmed received bruises to his body.

Several journalists who took part in the religious processions were also injured.