Five journalists, including four Muslim journalists, were allegedly abused and assaulted by a right-wing mob when they were covering the Hindu Mahapanchyat event organised on Burari grounds on Sunday.
The journalists include freelancer Arbab Ali, Meer Faisal from The Hindustan Gazette, photojournalist Mohd Meherbaan and The Quint’s Meghnad Bose. The fifth journalist wants to maintain his anonymity fearing retaliation.
The journalists, who were taken to the police station from the event ground, took to Twitter and stated that they were on assignment to cover the event when they were attacked by the right-wing mob. They added that their equipment was seized and photographs and videos of the event were deleted.
Our cameras, phones were snatched by the right-wing organisations. They said we are from Jamia Nagar and are jihadis. We are being taken to Mukherjee Nagar.— Arbab Ali (@arbabali_jmi) April 3, 2022
The event was being organised under the banner of Save India Foundation and was attended by anti-Muslim hate monger Yati Narsighanand. The organisers had also invited Sudarshan News editor Suresh Chavhanke as one of the chief guests at the ‘Mahapanchayat’.
@mdmeharban03 @meerfaisal01 @MeghnadBose93 and I had gone to cover the Hindu Mahapanchayat at Burari Ground in Delhi today. The event was called by Save India Foundation. Yati Narsinghanand, Pinky Choudhary, Sushil Tiwari, Suresh Chahvanke and Preet Singh were there. 1/n pic.twitter.com/z9bf9eIlUJ— Arbab Ali (@arbabali_jmi) April 3, 2022
Arbab Ali, who had gone as press representative of Article 14 told The Cognate, “I was harassed by the right-wing mob and was called names such as Jihadi. The condition here is scary, the other journalists were even beaten by the mob”.
Newslaundry reporters Shivangi and Ronak Bhatt were also allegedly attacked by the mob.
DCP (northwest) Usha Rangnani said that due police protection was provided to the said journalists and no one was detained, IANS reported.
In a video shared by AA News, Narsinghanand can be seen spewing venom against Muslims and inciting hatred.
Save India Foundation is the same group that had organised a similar event at Jantar Mantar last year, where anti-Muslim hate speech was given.
The anti-Muslim sloganeering at the Jantar Mantar event on 8 August 2021 had led to the Delhi Police arresting BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay and five others who were part of the event, including event organiser Preet Singh, president of Save India Foundation.
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Ghazala Ahmad is the Delhi Correspondent for The Cognate.
