MAHOTTARI, Jan 8: A group of journalists were ‘roughed up’ inside the office of the mayor of the Janakpurdham Sub-Metropolitan City on Tuesday.

The journalists had reached the office for information from Mayor Lal Kishor Sah about the encroachment of Janaki Temple land.

When the journalists asked him about the encroached land, the mayor’s supporters roughed them up, according to the journalists. 

The journalists were manhandled on the order of the mayor himself, a press statement issued by Kiran Kumar Karna, general secretary of Federation of Nepali Journalists reads.

Those manhandled at the office are Amar Kanta Thakur, a Dhanusha correspondent of Kantipur Television, and Bikash Kumar Sah and Satrudhan Shah of AP1 Television, Shubhash Mishra of Ujyalo 90 Network, Raja Jha of Deshsanchar.com, and Sumit Mishra of ABC Television among others, the statement reads.

“We [a group of journalists] had reached his office to defuse the hostile situation. But, the mayor’s supporters resorted to confrontation and attacked us,” Karna said. 

According to Anil Mishra, president of Dhanusha chapter of FNJ, the injured have already been discharged from the Janakpur Zonal Hospital.

“The journalists were made to wait for three hours. Then, they were manhandled by mayor’s supporters. They [mayor’s supporters] accused the journalists of misbehaving,” Mishra said, adding that the mayor’s supporters even snatched the cell phones and cameras from journalists.

FNJ has also demanded investigation into the incident.

Meanwhile, the mayor’s office said that journalists misbehaved in the office and 

started manhandling the staffers. It also claimed that three female staffers were also injured in the incident. 

 
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