Journalists protest police brutality in Tripura

Agartala, July 15 (ANI): Journalists in Tripura protested against police brutality on some of their colleagues at a recently held rally.

They handed over a memorandum to the Governor D. Y. Patil demanding suspension of Superintendent of Police (West) Aneesh Prasad and two other officers named Narayan Saha and Jahangir Hussain for using brute force on journalists.

Syed Sajjad Ali, a member of the Journalists' delegation, stated that the police used coercive measures against innocent and unarmed journalists.

"In a situation the police officers are supposed to control the police personnel. But in that case it was found that police officers themselves were instigating and leading this brutality of baton charge and assaulting and torturing the ordinary journalists and photographers. They even displayed their identity cards and tried to convince the officers that they were on duty," he said.

Ali added that the excesses committed by the police pointed out the fact that they had received prior instruction from the higher authorities to use force against them.

Meanwhile, the Tripura government ordered a magisterial inquiry into the assault on 11 photojournalists during a clash between police and opposition activists at the MBB College area of the city.(ANI)