Arundhati Roy has been accused of sedition after claiming Kashmir was not part of India. Her comments may be controversial, but the real scandal is the law, says Salil Tripathi
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Paramilitary personnel ransacked the Balochistan offices of private television channel VSH News TV on 4 October. VSH staff were told by members of the Frontier Corps (FC) to put their hands up, and were then frisked and told to leave the office. Computers and other office equipment were searched and damaged. Reporter for VSH, Jabbar Baloch, was told by an FC spokesman that the raid was carried out due to a misunderstanding. Baloch believes the incident may be in connection to recently aired VSH footage which showed Balochistan journalists’ critical comments about FC activities.
Abdul Rehman Afridi, editor of the local newspaper Daily Sitara in Jacobabad, Sindh province and vice president of the Jacobabad Press Club was attacked on 8 September. He was attacked by a gang angered at his publication of news stories about the district government’s mismanagement of relief material intended for flood victims. Afridi was threatened at the newspaper’s office and then beaten with wooden sticks.
British journalist working for Channel 4, Asad Qureshi, was freed after being held hostage by the Taliban in Pakistan for five months. Qureshi was filming a documentary about militancy in Pakistan for Channel 4 in North Warizistan before he was abducted on charges of spying.