JKLF chief roughed me up, broke phone: TV reporter

Srinagar, May 19 (IANS) A TV reporter on Friday accused JKLF chief Yasin Malik of roughing her up and breaking her phone, but the separatist leader alleged she had barged into his bedroom.

Kanwaljit Sandhu, an India Today group reporter against whom Malik filed a police complaint of criminal trespass, said she had sought permission from the separatist leader's sister to talk to him.

"I was introduced to a lady people said was Malik's sister. She told me to go in and speak to him about the interview.

"I entered his room without the cameraman. The cameraman was waiting outside. When I told Malik I was from India Today TV, he lost his cool. He snatched and smashed my mobile phone.

"I and our staff were manhandled and forced out of the house in Maisuma area of Srinagar."

Malik, who heads the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, had another story.

He told police that the reporter barged into his bedroom and later accused him of "manhandling her".

Addressing the media here, Malik said the journalist had not sought an appointment to interview him.

He alleged that she lied to his sister that she had an appointment for an interview with him.

"She suddenly barged into my bedroom when I was asleep and starting shooting and recording on her mobile phone.

"This shocked me. I objected to her behaviour. I snatched her mobile phone and asked her to leave my bedroom. She then started crying and alleging that I had manhandled her."

Malik said: "I am asking the media fraternity whether this is the right way of interviewing a person?"

He said he had filed a complaint of criminal and malicious trespass against the journalist.

India Today TV recently did an expose showing three separatist leaders confess that they had been getting funds from Pakistan for creating unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

Malik on Friday said if anybody could prove that he owned any property other than his ancestral home in Maisuma area of Srinagar, he would give up his political career.