Seething with anger, journalists protested across West Bengal on Tuesday against police "brutalities" on them while covering the march to secretariat programme of the Left parties.
Journalists brought out silent rallies, organised tool down protests and submitted deputations in Kolkata and the districts in protest against "police barbarism" and in solidarity with their injured colleagues who faced the wrath of the security forces in their line of duty.
While police have claimed only three media persons were injured, journalists on field duty on Monday have out the figure at over 20. Some of the journalists had to be taken to hospital after the "savage police attack".
In Kolkata, a large number of journalists and electronic media camerapersons participated in a silent rally from Rabindrasadan in south Kolkata to the city police headquarters Lalbazar in the central part of the metropolis.
The rallyists, many of them women, tied black clothes on their faces and carried aloft posters reading "We want justice" and "Stop attacks on journalists".
Representatives of journalists also submitted a deputation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi seeking his intervention to stop such assaults.
Rallies were also taken out by journalists in South 24 Parganas and West Midnapore districts, while media persons in Birbhum district submitted deputation to the district authorities.
A number of journalist associations across the state have empathised with their wounded colleagues.
The injured journalists have pointed fingers at Deputy Commissioner, STF Murli Dhar Sharma, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Aparajita Rai and Assistant Commissioner Pradip Dam.
Meanwhile, state Parliamentary Affairs Minister and senior Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee on Tuesday expressed regret for the way journalists were beaten up by police.
"We express regret over the way journalists have been beaten up while covering a news story," Chatterjee said in the state assembly.
--IANS
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