PML-F leader’s guards remanded for beating up journalist

A local court has allowed one-day remand of three guards of Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) Karachi President Yasir Ali Shah for allegedly beating up a journalist.

The court was informed on Monday that Altaf Hussain, Majnoon and Ilyas, along with seven absconding guards, had misbehaved with and beaten up a reporter associated with The Express Tribune on Saturday.

The investigating officer requested the court to grant physical remand of the three guards so they could he interrogated and the whereabouts of their seven accomplices ascertained, following which the bench remanded the accused for a day.

According to reporter Zubair Ashraf, he was severely beaten up by the guards during “VIP movement” in the jurisdiction of the Defence police station after he raised an objection to the “reckless” driving of the PML-F leader’s convoy.

Ashraf said he was riding his motorbike to work, along with photographer Athar Khan, when a convoy of PML-F Karachi chief Shah overtook them near the National Medical Centre on Korangi Road.

He said Shah was driving a black Toyota Land Cruiser and was escorted by several vans carrying dozens of armed guards, adding that the convoy overtook all the other vehicles in the “rashest” manner and many motorcyclists “narrowly escaped being hit by them”.

Ashraf claimed that when he objected to the “reckless” driving, the private security guards in the politician’s convoy started beating him up with batons and caused “serious injuries”.

While the PML-F leader admitted that the vehicle mentioned in the case belonged to him and he himself was driving it, he claimed being unaware of the incident with the reporter. He said he would investigate into the matter.

After the incident came to light, the Karachi Union of Journalists condemned the alleged physical assault. The body termed the incident “deplorable” and said that it had exposed the curse of the VIP culture in society.