A two-member squad, dressed in civil clothes, was trying to knife three journalists in Jaffna after chasing them in a motorbike for 2 kilometres at Nalloor on Tuesday night. The journalists were returning to their offices in two motorbikes after collecting news of a hunger strike when the incident took place. The journalists managed to escape from the attackers and rushed to the Police station in Jaffna to lodge a complaint on the assassination attempt. At the police station, they saw the motorbike of the attackers parked inside the premises and the alleged attackers were a police inspector and a surgeon. The police officers at duty refused to file the complaint from the journalists. In the meantime, another reporter from Point Pedro has been remanded on Wednesday for filing a story about an attempted rape of a school girl by a police constable belonging to Nelliyadi police station.
Tharmapalan Vinojith, the staff reporter at Yaazh Thinakkural and the chairman of Jaffna Press Club, Piratheepan Thampithurai, the Jaffna correspondent of Hiru TV and Mayurathan Sreeramachandran, the reporter of Ada Derana and Tamil Mirror were the three journalists, who were intercepted by the two member squad that chased them at Nalloor around 9:45 p.m. on Tuesday.
When the journalists spotted the attackers wielding knives against them, they managed to escape from the site.
The journalists say that the attackers in civil were wearing t-shirts used by the police. Only one of them was wearing a helmet.
When the three journalists arrived at the police station and witnessed that the attackers were policemen from the same station, the policemen at the station not only refused to register their complaint, but they also attempted to assault them, the journalists said.
A complaint was accepted only on the following day after a long process and that too registered as a ‘minor offence’, the journalists said.
In the meantime, the Senior Police Superintend in Jaffna was trying for a negotiation on Wednesday night with the journalists to avoid legal proceedings against the policemen, media sources in Jaffna said.
Now, the police has accepted that the it was two of its police officers who were behind the incident. But, the police says that they took the knives for their ‘personal security’. The involved police officers have alleged that the three journalists had attempted to assault them.
The journalists say that the attackers intended to cause major harm as the squad had chased them for 2 kilometres and pointed knives against them while intercepting them. “How could three journalists confront two trained police officers who were armed with knives”, a journalist asked.
In the meantime, Jaffna Press Club (JPC) has said the journalists have been continuously harassed by the SL police, the so-called Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and the SL military intelligence. Journalists Mayoorathan and Vinojith have been harassed after they brought out the news of houses being destroyed inside the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North. Majorathan was subjected to an attack on the road by a squad. The TID has been harassing them continuously, the JPC said.
The journalists, who do not want to drop the case agains the police squad, have approached the Human Rights Commission in Jaffna on Thursday. “We still remember that the assassinated journalist Nimalrajan was harassed by police squad that visited him before he was slain,” one of the journalists told TamilNet.
Meanwhile, S. Logathayalan, a journalist working for Uthayan and Thinakkural was remanded on Wednesday for investigations against filing a story on a rape attempt by a policeman from Nelliyadi station. The story was published in Uthayan paper on Tuesday. The story didn’t mention the name of the policeman. However, on Wednesday, the SL police went out with a denial against the story in the same paper.
The SL police wanted the editor T. Premananth and the staff reporter Logathayalan to record their statements. But, Logathayalan was arrested after he gave his statement and was taken to the court on Wednesday.
Point Pedro court’s acting Magistrate P. Subramaniyam remanded the journalist till 17 April.
The journalist was released on bail on Thursday. It is very strange that the journalist was legally remanded for publishing a story that didn’t violate the norms of journalism, journalists in Jaffna said
[TamilNet]