BJP Workers Beat Journalist for Raising ‘Security Lapse’ in Kashmir Terror Attack

Police Reportedly Refuse to Provide FIR Copy to Dainik Jagran Journalist

April 27, 2025

Screenshot from Journalist Vikas Pandit’s YouTube Channel

Rakesh Sharma, 58, a senior correspondent with the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, was recently beaten by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, while covering a roadside protest over the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam. They attacked him for a simple reason: he had asked someone at the rally why the party kept burning effigies of Pakistan instead of addressing what he called a “security lapse.”

The attack occurred on the evening of April 24, as Sharma’s question about alleged infiltration from across the border appeared to challenge the symbolism of the protest and, by extension, the Union government’s security record.

According to witnesses and video footage, a BJP supporter, Himanshu Sharma, branded the journalists “anti-national” for raising that point, and another supporter, identified as Ravinder Singh, kicked Sharma before a small group joined in, punching and hitting him with whatever lay to hand, as reported by Newslaundry and The Wire.

The violence unfolded in front of three BJP MLAs—Devender Maniyal, Bharat Bhushan and Rajiv Jasrotia—yet none intervened at the time.

Officers led by Deputy Superintendent of Police, also named Ravinder Singh, eventually pulled Sharma away and took him to Government Medical College, Kathua. Doctors said his injuries were not life-threatening, but lingering pain later forced a second round of tests at a private clinic; Sharma has since reported difficulty passing urine, suggesting deeper bruising.

Late that night he limped to Kathua police station to lodge a complaint. An FIR (first information report) was opened under Sections 191 and 115 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, India’s new criminal code.

Section 191 defines rioting: violence by an unlawful assembly can bring up to two years in prison, or five if weapons are used. Section 115 covers voluntarily causing hurt, an offence punishable by up to one year’s jail, a fine or both.

The accused named were Ravinder Singh, Manjit Singh, Raj Sagar, Ashwini Kumar and Himanshu Sharma, all reportedly active in the local BJP. According to the reporter, police had not handed him the mandatory copy of the FIR.

Sharma believes the assault was pre-meditated.

Two weeks earlier, he had filmed Ravinder Singh at another event after security forces lost six men during an anti-militant operation. When Sharma asked why such attacks kept occurring despite the BJP’s rule in New Delhi, Singh allegedly ordered the camera switched off and muttered that the journalist “needed to be taught a lesson.” The latest beating, Sharma says, was the sequel.

MLAs Bhushan and Jasrotia have called the assault “unfortunate” and said they raised the matter within the party, but they insist they were across the highway when blows were struck. Devender Maniyal, the third legislator present, has not commented. Party discipline therefore appears uneven: local cadres felt emboldened to rough up a critic while senior figures limit themselves to mild regret.

Kathua’s press corps has responded forcefully. More than 30 journalists marched through Shaheedi Chowk with black armbands, vowing to boycott BJP functions until those responsible are punished. Harpreet Singh of the Kathua Press Club said the incident exposes the hazards young reporters face when they pose awkward questions to officials. The press club delegation has pressed Senior Superintendent of Police Shobhit Saxena to speed up arrests and guarantee reporters’ safety.

That plea sits against a bleak national backdrop. India ranks 159th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2024 World Press Freedom Index, its security indicator—which measures the risk of physical, psychological or professional harm to journalists—falling to 162nd.

Dainik Jagran, which has been widely regarded as supportive of the BJP, chose to run the story only in its Kathua city supplement, not in its Jammu, Kashmir or Delhi editions, Newslaundry noted. The decision hints at self-censorship within large media houses wary of angering the authorities.

The Kathua assault matters for three reasons.

First, it shows how quickly a routine protest can turn violent when reporters test the ruling party’s claims. Second, it illustrates the gap between the BJP’s public condemnation of violence and its inconsistent control over grassroots supporters. Third, it exposes the structural vulnerability of press freedom in today’s India, where a journalist may need a police officer’s mercy to escape a mob yet still struggle to obtain something as basic as a copy of his own FIR. 

You have just read a News Briefing by Newsreel Asia, written to cut through the noise and present a single story for the day that matters to you. Certain briefings, based on media reports, seek to keep readers informed about events across India, others offer a perspective rooted in humanitarian concerns and some provide our own exclusive reporting. We encourage you to read the News Briefing each day. Our objective is to help you become not just an informed citizen, but an engaged and responsible one.