By Shafeeq Hudawi, Twocircles.net
Palakkad: In yet another incident of attack on media persons by members of political parties in Kerala, a group of BJP workers attacked and threatened to murder media persons at Ottapalam here on Tuesday. The incident took place around 1.30 pm on the premises of a court in Ottapalam when reporters were capturing the visuals of BJP members accused in a case related to a political violence at Nellaya.
Shyam Kumar, a reporter with Asianet News, was manhandled by BJP workers who also destroyed his camera and mobile phone of the news team.
A man, who led the attack, threatened the media persons with murder. “We have hacked (opponents) when we did not have neither MLA nor power at centre. We will finish you,” the man was heard saying in video clips of the attack.
Sreejith, a reporter of Reporter channel and Anoop, a cameraman of City channel were also attacked. They sought medical treatment at Ottapalm taluk hospital. The police allegedly stood mute witness to the incident. Shoranur MLA P.K. Shashi of CPM had the other day censured the police officials of the region alleging that they were not taking any action against the culprits in the Nellaya case. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, former chief minister Oommen Chandy and KPCC chief V.M. Sudheeran condemned the attack on journalists and sought immediate action against the culprits.