Hindus attack Pak journalists

NEW DELHI (Agencies) - Activists of Shri Ram Sene, a Hindu extremist group, attacked visiting Pakistani journalists during a seminar at India International Centre (IIC) here on Wednesday.
Organised by Foundation for Media Professionals, two groups of journalists from Pakistan and Indian formed a panel for discussion on Is Media Jingoism Fanning India-Pakistan Problem?.
Pakistani journalists, who were also attending the seminar, included Rahimullah Yusufzai, Saeed Minhas, Muniba Kamal and Beena Sarwar. The Indian speakers included noted author Arundhati Roy; columnist Swapan Dasgupta; Nirupama Subramanian, The Hindu correspondent in Islamabad; and Amit Baruah, the Hindustan Times foreign editor.
A large number of journalists and academicians participated in the discussion.
As Rahimullah Yusufzai was speaking on the subject, a group of Shri Ram Sene activists stood up and started raising slogans against Pakistan. The slogans included Jang Karen Ge Pakistan Se. The Shri Ram Sene extremists, who were seated as audience members at the venue at the IIC, thronged IIC and thrashed Pakistani journalists and chanted anti-Pakistan slogans. They also tried to rush towards Yusufzai but the organisers and participants pushed them out and locked the door.
A security official at the IIC said on condition of anonymity: While the discussion was on, some Sene members started shouting anti-Pakistan slogans like 'Pakistan is a global problem and war is the solution. It spread commotion in the seminar room and the discussion was suspended for 15-20 minutes, he added.
They continued raising slogans against Pakistan outside the hall. Later, a police contingent reached the spot to control the situation.
The incident shows the level of anti-Pakistan sentiments in India.
Owning responsibility for the act, Sene National General Secretary Binay Kumar Singh told IANS: Everything was preplanned as we wanted to disrupt the seminar. He said around 30 members of the group were present.
Speakers at the seminar were making comments against India and they were relating India with the recent terror attack on a police academy in Lahore. How can one listen to it? Pakistan has become a global problem and war is the only solution, said Kumar.
Later, talking to APP Yusufzai described it as an unfortunate incident. He said it was purely an academic discussion and has nothing to do with politics between Pakistan and India.
The fringe group hit the headlines on January 24 when they attacked women in the southern city of Mangalore for going to pubs, saying it was against Hindu culture. Later, its members attacked Hindu women for talking to Muslim men.