Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Thursday ordered an inquiry into a raid carried out by Islamabad police at the National Press Club (NPC), where several journalists were allegedly attacked.

Visuals aired on DawnNewsTV showed policemen armed with batons attacking journalists on the press club premises. Visuals shared on social media also showed police dragging journalists out of what appeared to be the cafeteria.

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Another video shared by a Dawn.com correspondent showed a journalist holding his broken Nikon camera and his shirt ripped across the back.

A statement issued by Naqvi stated that he had taken notice of the “unfortunate” incident and demanded a report from the Islamabad inspector general of police.

“Violence against the journalist community cannot be tolerated under any circumstances,” he was quoted as saying. “Disciplinary action must be taken against officials involved in the incident,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) President Afzal Butt held a press conference alongside Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry at the National Press Club.

He said that during the police raid, when the press club’s office-bearers tried to intervene and resolve the matter, they were “beaten and tortured”.

“They even arrested two people, who were later released,” Butt added.

He added that multiple people at the scene pointed out that they had to get the police to release them. “Today’s incident is a matter of now or never for us,” Butt said.

He announced that the PFUJ had called an “emergency session”, where “we will consult and chalk out our demands about what the government needs to do to prevent what the police did today.

“We will also decide our course of action and announce it after the meeting.”

Butt said, “We always avoid confrontation with political parties. Our friends were very angry … but I controlled them … Something like this has never happened before.

“That you enter a photographer’s house — the press club is their second home […] that you enter his home without permission, beat him and break his camera and mobile phone. This has never happened before.”

Butt alleged that even the members of the press club’s management and its office-bearers were “beaten”.

“This is not only the Islamabad press club’s issue. Press clubs across Pakistan are of the view that if they turn a blind eye to this worst of the worst incident, similar incidents could happen in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta.

“That is why we will first consult our friends here and then across Pakistan. We will then decide our plan of action and put forward our demands.”

For his part, Chaudhry said he condemned the incident and apologised for it. “Please consider this when you hold your meeting,” he said, assuring that he was also ready to meet them again after their meeting.

Chaudhry’s office also issued a statement unconditionally apologising for the incident, adding that it happened “suddenly”.

“Some people from the [JAAC] were protesting [and] some of their people had manhandled police personnel,” the statement read. “When they tried to arrest these people, the police chased them. The police came to the Press Club to arrest the protesters who misbehaved with [officers].”

The statement added that Chaudhry had ordered an internal inquiry into the incident.

Meanwhile, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar called the incident “regrettable” in a statement, vowing that a comprehensive investigation would be carried out.

“Interior Minister Naqvi did not order police to enter the press club,” he was quoted as saying. “The National Press Club is my home and I stand with it,” he said.

Journalist bodies held another press conference at the NPC later, where Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists President Tariq Virk said journalists across the country stood united after the police raid at NPC.

He alleged that “Islamabad police personnel had not come to the press club on their own accord but were sent here”.

“They inflicted violence on journalists inside the press club. They even tortured and arrested an ailing employee of the club,” he alleged, vowing to “adopt such a plan of action” that nobody would resort to this “rogue behaviour” in future.

PFUJ President Butt said today was one of the “darkest days in Pakistan’s history”.

“The attack on the National Press Club was an attack on media freedom,” he said, adding that members of journalist bodies had participated in the meeting held after the police raid. “We will prepare a strategy after consulting all journalist bodies.”

Butt further stated that journalists in other cities had also protested the raid at NPC and that “if the National Press Club was not safe from police, then no other press club was”. Butt reiterated his allegation that cameras and mobile phones were snatched and broken during the incident.

He announced that a “black day” would be observed across the country tomorrow, and black flags would be hoisted at the press clubs all across Pakistan.

“The journalists are very angry at the moment. It has been suggested that we get first information reports registered in which some bigwigs are nominated,” he said.

Journalist’s account of raid

Journalist Shiraz Gardezi, who is associated with Geo News and also the senior joint secretary of the NPC, shared an account of the raid with Dawn.com.

Gardezi said the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC) — which has also been holding demonstrations in Azad Kashmir — had issued a call for a protest at the press club. “As soon as the demonstration began, they (police) surrounded the protesters,” he narrated.

Gardezi, who was at the NPC to cover the protest, said police stopped them from doing so. “Because they were torturing, beating and dragging people,” he alleged, adding that they even tried to snatch mobile phones and cameras from some of the journalists.

According to him, they even dragged and tried to take away some of the journalists with them, but they were let go after some other journalists intervened.

“We then asked the journalists to stay on the back foot and keep themselves safe,” he said.

Later, he continued, “We heard loud bangs while sitting inside the press club. They (police) kicked the doors open and stormed inside”.

Shirazi narrated that the police broke various things in the cafeteria and “beat and tortured” people. This time, too, the police tried to take away some journalists, but they were “rescued”.

Police raid termed ‘terrorism’

In a joint statement, the PFUJ, Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors and Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors termed the police raid at the NPC “terrorism”.

They also demanded immediate action against those “involved in the incident”.

The statement said journalist organisations saw this incident as a continuation of a series of actions ongoing against journalists.

It highlighted that for the past few days, advertisements were being run under the title of ‘Have you ever thought what the state of war is?’ They alleged that “government” was behind these advertisements. “Threatening tone is used in these advertisements, and reporters, freelancers and social organisations related to the media are listed as anti-state. Its objective is to tarnish the character of journalists, pressurise them and curb the freedom of expression.”

The journalists’ bodies demanded that the publication of these advertisements should immediately stop.

They also expressed the view that the “excessive use” of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act had proved the concerns of multiple journalists to be true. “The act is being used to employ all tactics for suppressing government critics and curbing the freedom of expression,” they alleged.

The Lahore Press Club also issued a condemnatory statement, demanding from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that police personnel involved in the raid be immediately suspended and arrested. The statement said strict legal action should be taken against them, otherwise journalists across Pakistan would stage protests.

‘Shameful and condemnable’

The incident also sparked outrage on social media as journalists decried the assault. In a post on X, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemned the “assault on journalists by Islamabad police” at the National Press Club.

“HRCP strongly condemns the raid on the National Press Club and [the] assault on journalists by the Islamabad police,” the rights group wrote in a post on X. “We demand an immediate inquiry and those responsible brought to book.”

Journalist Hamid Mir stated that police were trying to arrest members of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) and that they had “targeted journalists present in the cafeteria”.

“This is totally uncalled for and condemnable,” said journalist Syed Talat Hussain.

“As if there aren’t enough fronts open. To treat the National Press Club as a criminal hideout and then use violence on its premises is madness without any method,” he said.

Journalist Matiullah Jan condemned the incident in a post on X, calling it “extremely shameful and condemnable”.

“This incident is [a product] of the incompetence and cowardice of the club administration,” Jan wrote. “The press club is the home of journalists, where it is disgraceful for the police to barge into the cafeteria with batons and attack people,” he said.

Journalist Anas Mallick, who works with TV channel Asia One, alleged that police had raided the club to arrest Kashmiri journalists covering a “call to protest” by the JAAC, adding that the police were “acting like thugs”.

Journalist Zebunnisa Burki called visuals emerging from the raid “insane” and added that journalists were being attacked by police inside the press club itself.

PTI MNA from Malakand, Junaid Akbar, also condemned the raid.

“Islamabad police storming the National Press Club and their violence against Kashmiri protesters and journalists is shameful and condemnable. An attack on the press club is an attack on the freedom of expression,” he said in a post on X.

Veteran journalist Mazhar Abbas said the police action at the NPC reminded him of the days of military dictators Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf.

“This act, rather an attack, on the Press Club, baton-charge and arrest, including some employees of the club, is simply unacceptable,” he wrote on X.

Human rights defender Tahira Abdullah called the incident “shocking,” stressing that a mere verbal apology from federal government representatives was unacceptable, especially when paired with the routine promises of an “inquiry.”

She demanded concrete measures, including the arrest and prosecution of all police personnel involved, along with their superiors who ordered the action; a written apology from the federal interior minister with a guarantee that such violations of press clubs and journalists would never be repeated; and compensation to cover the replacement of damaged cameras, equipment, and furnishings at the NPC.

Prominent human rights lawyer Muhammad Jibran Nasir said that the “government apologised because it was journalists in general who got assaulted in the presence of cameras”.

“But they came hunting for activists supporting the protest in AJK. Imagine the barbarity inflicted upon them in the clashes in the past four days. You being a citizen does not matter. You being essential to the State’s cause matters. The State has never apologised for abducting, assaulting and arresting journalists who oppose State policies,” he wrote on X.

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Additional reporting by Rana Bilal