Journalist claims PML-N activists tortured him

LONDON: A Pakistani journalist is pressing ahead with police charges against the leadership of the PML-N after allegedly being roughed and beaten up.

The fracas broke out on Wednesday here at the luncheon press conference called by the PML-N, which was addressed by Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif.

London-based Raza Syed, who edits a weekly broadsheet, claims that two prominent leaders of the PML-N tortured him after he was taken out of the conference. Eye-witnesses confirm that Raza Syed was taken out by the PML-N handlers after, in an attempt to get his question heard, he moved towards the head of the tables where the PML-N leadership was seated and reached next to them.

An Indian journalist had asked Nawaz Sharif his views about the Indian charge that following 26/11 attacks in India, Pakistan was not doing enough to curb militancy and Jihadist groups. She had pointed out that although militant leader Maulana Masood Azhar was in hiding but the mosque where he led prayers was functioning as normal and his group’s activities were going on undisturbed.

Raza Syed told this scribe he felt that Nawaz Sharif didn’t answer the question satisfactorily and wanted to explain to Indian journalist that mosques being the place of worship didn’t have any relation to individuals or terrorists and such parallel should not be drawn.