A large number of mediapersons rallied from the KPC towards the Governor's House peacefully to condemn strict curbs on media imposed under President Musharraf's emergency rule.
The injured included Amir Latif from Online news agency; Javed Imrani, Beena Sarwar, Samin Agha from Geo TV; Najeeb Peji and Naseer Ahmed from Daily Jang, Waqar Bhatti from The News, Aajiz Jamali from ARY, Akbar Baloch from Daily Intikhab, Khurshid Abbasi, A Nadeem from Daily Awam S Raza Hassan from Daily Dawn, Tariq Habib, Zubair Rehman and Liaquat Mughal.
The Police attacked journalists when they were trying to remove barricades from Deen Mohammad Wafai Road to continue their march towards nearby Governor's House. Prominent among those arrested were Sabihuddin Ghousi, President KPC, Shamim-ur-Rehman and Javed Chaudhry President and General Secretary Karachi Union of journalists respectively, Ahfazur Rahman from Daily Express, Zarar Khan from Associated Press, Idrees Bakhtyar from BBC, Javed Sabah and Faisal Aziz Khan from Association of TV Journalists, A.H Khanzada from DawnNews, Abul Hasanat from Dawn, Kamal Siddiqui from The News, Asghar Umer, Ghulam Mustafa, Moosa Kaleem and several other senior and junior journalists from print and electronic media.
At least 10 women journalists were also baton-charged and arrested by the police. The journalists were detained in Clifton, Darakhshan, Docks and Frere police stations.
Tension continued as heavy contingents of police and Rangers blocked several protesters inside the press club. The KUJ in a hurriedly called meeting condemned arrest of the journalists and announced that it would hold another protest rally today, (Wednesday), outside the KPC and offer more "voluntary arrests" as mark of protest.
The meeting condemned imposition of emergency, suspension of constitution and seizure of fundamental rights and strict ban on media and demanded of military ruler Pervez Musharraf to restore media freedom, democracy, constitution and judiciary in the country.