The Press Club of India on Tuesday condemned the recent assault on journalists at the ‘Hindu Mahapanchayat’ in Burari and demanded that “Delhi Police immediately arrests the hooligans” behind the attack. The club also condemned the arrest of three journalists in UP’s Ballia who had reported the class 12 Engish paper leak case.

In a statement released on Twitter, the club said that the assault on journalists in Delhi was “highly deplorable” and “seemingly smacks of preconceived nefarious designs of communal hooligans to force mediapersons to follow their hidden agendas”.

The statement said “these people are hellbent on gagging the press in its entirety.” It also called Delhi police a “mute spectator” for not arresting those behind the Burari attacks. It sought a judicial inquiry into the sequence of events which led to the assault.

Referring to the arrest of journalists in Ballia, the statement pointed out that the UP government was threatening and arresting mediapersons who “don't toe the line of the government”. The press club demanded that the Balli administration should release the journalists who were arrested and bring to justice the “mafia” behind the leak instead. The journalists arrested in the case had claimed that they were “framed for reporting on the paper leak”.