Lensman, journalist beaten up

A photojournalist and a woman reporter, both working with a vernacular daily, were allegedly beaten up by a few unidentified men, who claimed to be relatives of a senior Akali leader. The men took away the photojournalist8217;s camera as the duo was returning to office after covering an assignment in Sarabha Nagar8217;s main market on Thursday evening. The two journalists are Harpreet Singh Makkar and his colleague Poonam Sapra.

Makkar said: 8220;I believe the reason behind the attack was that we had taken photos of the police removing the black film from their car. On our way back, they stopped us and snatched my camera. Then they banged the camera on the road and threw it away.8221; Before leaving, they also roughed up Poonam. 8220;They pushed me back and barely saved myself from falling on the road. After that the miscreants fled from the spot,8221; said Sapra.

A number of mediapersons gathered at the spot after coming to know of the incident. Later, the angry journalists took out a protest march and raised slogans against the Punjab police for their slow approach.

Sarabha Nagar DSP Bhupinder Singh said an FIR had been registered. 8220;We have also identified the persons involved and they will be arrested soon.8221;