A journalist in Assam was seriously injured Friday when policemen allegedly assaulted him at Kakopathar, the scene of violent clashes last week that left nine people dead.The journalist, Robin Dhekial Phukan, had gone to Kakopathar in Tinsukia district to cover a visit by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. Reporters later boycotted a news conference by the chief minister to protest the incident.
Phukan, a correspondent of the Assamese newspaper Asomiya Pratidin, was allegedly beaten by police.
"Our correspondent is now in hospital with serious injuries after the police assaulted him," Manjit Mahanta, executive editor of Asomiya Pratidin, told IANS.
Mahanta said incident occurred when police assaulted local people who were wearing black badges and shouting slogans against the chief minister and his government.
"Our correspondent was also present there and some policemen suddenly pounced on him and assaulted him before forcibly taking him to the police station without any provocation," Mahanta said.
From the police station, Phukan was taken to a hospital at Kakopathar.
"Doctors at Kakopathar said he had serious injuries and referred him to the main hospital in Tinsukia," a journalist in Tinsukia said on telephone.
Senior police officials refused to comment on the incident.
"We had told the chief minister that henceforth we will boycott all government functions in protest against the unprovoked attack on journalists," a member of the Tinsukia District Journalists Association said.
The assault on Phukan was the latest in a series of attacks on journalists in the northeast in recent weeks.
Ratan Luwangcha, bureau chief of Poknapham, a mass circulated Manipuri daily, was shot at and critically wounded by gunmen Feb 9 in Imphal.
The Kangleipak Communist Party, a rebel group, has claimed responsibility for this attack.
Last month, Prahlad Goala, 32, a reporter of Assamese daily Asomiya Khabar, was killed by miscreants.
"Goala was brutally killed for writing a series of stories that exposed corruption and a nexus between a forest warden and timber smugglers," said Atanu Bhuyan, editor of Asomiya Khabar.
Police arrested the accused forest warden K.Z. Zaman Jinnah on suspicion of murdering Goala.
(IANS)
