HT PHOTOGRAPHER’S BIKE BURNT

NEW DELHI: As people for and against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) clashed in northeast Delhi on Monday, journalists were not spared the wrath of the mob.

Hindustan Times photographer Sanchit Khanna had gone to cover the violence at Karawal Nagar when his motorcycle was set ablaze. Later, another group cornered him and deleted the pictures he had taken of the violence, threatened and assaulted him. Khanna had reached the spot around 12.30pm on Monday when violence began intensifying around Karawal Nagar. He had parked his motorcycle near a police post to cover the protests. “I was on the terrace of a building to cover the area and saw a group of men setting vegetable carts and a car on fire. They headed towards the police post and started pouring petrol over the parked vehicles there. Before I could react, I saw the vehicles, including my motorcycle, up in flames,” said Khanna.

Despite this, Khanna continued to document the violence. Minutes later, he heard some men running up the building. This group, of around four to five unarmed masked men, cornered Khanna who was with photographers from other news publications.

“These people kept insisting that I show them the pictures that I had taken. One person was yelling to others to confiscate my camera’s SD memory card,” he said. “While some of the people from the group kept abusing me and pulling me towards the crowd, a senior member in the group asked me to show him my official ID and my documents. They took a picture of it and eventually let me go.”