Four photojournalists and a driver were injured and their vehicle was damaged in an attack by villagers, while they were going to cover a clash which broke out when a group of 150 people forcibly tried to enter a polling booth in Satha village in Dausa district of Rajasthan.
ITBP force opened 14 rounds of fire in the air to disperse the mob of 150 people who were trying to enter into a polling booth in Satha, DGP (Law and Order) Navdeep Singh said.
The villagers pelted stones at the ITBP personnel when they asked them to vacate the booth area, he said adding, they also set on fire an ITBP vehicle.
The irate villagers also damaged a vehicle carrying journalists, who were going to cover the violence at the polling booth in Satha district, injuring four photojournalists and a driver.
The journalists, including the PTI photo contributor Rohit Jain, were the part of a media team which was covering the polling in the Dausa constituency.
"The journalists, who were in Mahua town, left for Satha village to cover the incident and as they reached the village, a mob of nearly 40-50 people stopped them and damaged the vehicle," Pramod Vaishnav, Assistant Public Relation Officer-DIPR, who was heading the media party, said.
"We were beaten by the villages. They damaged our vehicle, snatched cameras, equipments and laptops," one of the photojournalist said.
Additional police force was rushed to the spot to control the situation and they were evacuated, police said.
Chief Election Officer Ashok Jain said that necessary directions were given immediately to the district administration and police for the security of the media persons.
The injured journalists were rushed to Mahua hospital where they were given primary treatment. A detailed report is awaited at the state headquarters.
Comments
0 comment