Police told to treat journalists, other citizens with utmost courtesy

A day after the Karachi police roughed up some journalists as the Sindh government began imposing stricter restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19, the city police chief directed his department to treat all journalists as well as other citizens with the utmost courtesy.

“Implementation of the SOPs [standard operating procedures] issued by the provincial government is the responsibility of the Karachi police,” Additional Inspector General of Police Imran Yaqoob Minhas said on Tuesday. “The Karachi police are using all their limited resources to protect the citizens and maintain law and order.”

The city police chief made these remarks during a meeting with a delegation of the Crime Reporters Association (CRA) that had called on him at his office. The CRA appreciated Minhas’ timely action regarding the incidents that occurred with some journalists in the city on Monday.

The association also shared a list of registered CRA members with the police chief, informing him about the existence of “fake” crime reporters operating in the city and blackmailing police officials. The CRA demanded action against such reporters.

Responding to the association’s demand, Minhas ordered sending the list of registered CRA members to every police station in the city, and vowed to take action against every “fake” crime reporter.

Among those present at the meeting were all three zonal DIGs of the city and representatives of the CRA, including President Sameer Qureshi, Vice President Zeeshan Shah, Secretary Raja Tariq and Joint Secretary Kashif Hashmi.

On Monday a senior photojournalist associated with a wire agency and a senior reporter of a private news channel had been thrashed by the Karachi police in the West and East districts hours after the provincial government announced its Covid-19 curfew.

After the government announcement and the resultant incidents of roughing up journalists, those associated with the media and working late hours started wondering how they would go to work or return home in the absence of the relevant directives that the government had clearly failed to issued to the police.