The Price of Journalism

FOLLOWING NAJAM SETHI'S PRESS CONFERENCE ON MAY 6, (read here) WHAT HAPPENED NEXT IS WHAT HAD BEEN FEARED ALL ALONG:

Last night at about 2.30 am, TFT Chief Editor Najam Sethi was dragged out of his house in Lahore by police, 2 in uniform (apparently an ASI and an SP), 6-7 in plainclothes, all of them armed. They had no arrest warrant and threatened to shoot when his wife Jugnu Mohsin, TFT's publisher, demanded one.

His house was surrounded by CIA and police cars, and private security guards were forced to let in the police after they were roughed up by some 20 armed plainclothesmen. Some broke into the locked bedroom where Najam and Jugnu were sleeping, manhandled and slapped Najam, and dragged him off without allowing him to either put on his eye-glasses or his shoes. They tied Jugnu's hands and locked her up in the dressing room. They took both the mobile phones and smashed another phone with a rifle butt.

HIS WHEREABOUTS ARE UNKNOWN. It is feared that a case of high treason is being prepared against him.

THE WHEREABOUTS OF HUSSAIN HAQQANI, ARRESTED ON MAY 5, ARE ALSO STILL UNKNOWN.

WHO IS NEXT?

NOTE: In a press statement following the protest meeting at the Lahore Press Club on May 7, Sethi had expressed fears of an attack 'by miscreants linked to the ruling party' on his Mall Road office, after having been publicly threatened by a Muslim League Youth Wing leader. He had received information that they were planning to burn down his bookstore, Vanguard Books.