PAKISTAN: NY Times reporter Carlotta Gall beaten

Disturbing news from Pakistan. New York Times reporter Carlotta Gall was beaten in her hotel room by a group of men who identified themselves as members of a special branch of the Pakistan police. Her colleague, photographer Akhtar Soomro was detained, but released the next day. This is part of an ongoing pattern of abuses against the press in Pakistan. Here's the full release from the the Committee to Protect Journalists...

New York, December 22, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for a full investigation into the detention of New York Times photographer Akhtar Soomro and the beating of reporter Carlotta Gall in Pakistan on December 19.

Gall, who covers Pakistan and Afghanistan for the Times, told CPJ that men who said they were from the special branch of Pakistan’s police, detained  Soomro, a Pakistani national, in his hotel around 8pm, and seized his computer and camera.

Four men later broke into her room in a separate hotel, hit her and took away some of her belongings. Gall said she had bruises on her arms, temple, and cheekbone, swelling on her left eye and a sprained knee. 

“They were extremely aggressive and abusive. The leader, who spoke English, refused to show any ID,” Gall said. The men accused of her of being in Quetta, the restive capital of Baluchistan province near the Afghan border, without permission. They said she had been interviewing Taliban members in Pashtunabad, a section of Quetta. Pakistan prides itself on not restricting journalists’ travel to areas other than the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in the Northwest Frontier Province. 

When Gall tried to stop them from taking the photographer Soomro, she was told, “He is Pakistani, we can do whatever we want with him.” He was released the next day, unharmed.

“We condemn the beating of our colleague Carlotta Gall and the detention of Akhtar Soomro. The Pakistani authorities must investigate this incident immediately and ensure that journalists are allowed to work freely,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “We are alarmed by the use of government security services to harass journalists who are reporting in Pakistan on issues of global significance.”

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information, visit www.cpj.org
Contact:  Bob Dietz  (212) 465-1004 ext 140  e-mail: bdietz@cpj.org

Comments

[Jaya Kamlani]

Arun Venugopal, I am glad you brought the sad situation of New York Times reporter Carlotta Gall to our attention. There has been no mention of her beatings at the hotel in Pakistan in the New York Times, for good reason I assume (until she is home safe). Carlotta's last articles in the Times appeared on December 11th and 13th -- on Pakistan's involvement with the extremists and how Pakistan and the Arabs and the Taliban drove the Soviets out of Pakistan. An Islamic newspaper reports that it for these articles she and her Muslim photographer were beaten on December 19th.

Any news on Carlotta Gall's whereabouts or the latest on the investigation by the journalists organization? I searched on the web and could not find anything beyond what you reported and what I have mentioned in this note. Nothing in the NYTimes either.

It is now all the more reason to stop the arms sale to Pakistan, for they can be used against our U.S soldiers and against India. The templates of sample letters to congressmen are available on Ram Narayan's website. If we don't halt this bill within 10 days, it will be passed, and Pakistan will be enriched with U.S arms.

-- Jaya Kamlani

[Daanish Khan]

Typical paranoid comments from inferiority complex laden Indians, who see everything in Pakistan out of a prism of jealousy and extreme hatred. I am not surprised that only Indians have commented on this story. Perhaps they would like me to post the abuse that journalists have had to endure in India itself, or about how the Indian caste system subjects millions of 'untouchables' to harsh physical and emotional stress daily. Yet, paranoid Indians continue to fret about arms sales to Pakistan from the US, which can (and probably someday will if India does not solve the Kashmir issue...hello F-16s!) be used against India. The Carlotta Gall story was of her own making. She should not have been in areas where either the police or members of the intelligence agencies would not have wanted her to go. This is the basic premise of being a guest in a country. She paid the price for it. To all the paranoid Indians, fix your own country before worrying about what happens in Pakistan.

[Jaya Kamlani]

Dear Daanish Khan,

In your comment you stated: "how the Indian caste system subjects millions of 'untouchables' to harsh physical and emotional stress daily..."

I am very well aware of this, and I have spoken against this countless times on SAJA Forum. I think if there is injustice in any part of the world - be it in Pakistan or India, Myanmar or Tibet, U.S. or Africa, or elsewhere in the world, we should all speak out against it. All people in the world should be treated with dignity.

We do not get to choose where we want to be born. We are born wherever God wants us to born, into whatever family or race He wants us to be born. Let us not bear any jealousy or hatred towards one another. Let us all work towards a common goal towards preserving peace and love in the world. I bear no grudge towards Pakistan, because my family's origin was in Sindh, Pakistan. And I myself was born in the same month and year of the partition of India, but only days after my birth we fled to a smaller India and that's where I lived until I came to America. That's why I feel if there is anything we can do to bring the people of India and Pakistan together, we should do so. But I felt for U.S. to sell arms to Pakistan in last year's political environment would not have been considered wise. It would not be considered wise even today, considering the chaos that is going on in the geographical area. I sincerely believe all countries need to put their arms down and do some soul searching, and start talking to each other. Too many lives have been lost. Too many families shattered.

Jaya Kamlani