Several journalists were beaten up by villagers at Sandeshkhali, in North 24-Parganas, on Friday morning when a team of Enforcement Directorate personnel was trying to break open the door of Trinamul Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh’s house.
A camera person, who was one of those attacked, narrated what it felt like to clutch on to his camera while kicks landed on his belly:
Like someone trying to snatch a child from the mother’s arms — that’s how I feel about my camera. This is not the first time that I have faced violence while performing my duty. But today’s brutality was on a different level altogether.
As the mob turned on us, we started running. I do not know in which direction I was running. But I just knew one thing, that I needed to keep my camera safe. Then suddenly, I found myself surrounded by people, unknown faces, men and women. Without a word, they pinned me down and started kicking me. They wanted my camera.
I held it to my chest like a baby. But I felt an excruciating pain in my hands and then all over my body as punches and kicks were landing on me. I did not realise when my grip loosened and my camera was gone.
A few minutes later, when I got back to my feet, I saw the broken remains of my camera a few feet away. Before I could reach them, some people started beating me again. They were carrying lathis. Some assaulted me with their bare hands. They were saying a lot of things. But nothing was registering in my mind. I had lost my camera.
I have been working for so many years and have faced so many hostile situations. But for the first time in my life, I came across a situation where not a single person was coming forward to stop the violence.
During other incidents, I have seen if four people are violent, at least two come forward to try and clam the nerves. But today, every person who was approaching me had the intention to assault us.
I thought I would lose consciousness. I had lost track of my reporter colleague or my office car. I could no longer see the broken remains of my camera, too. All I could see around me were unknown faces, bent on violence.
I just started running, without knowing where. I kept running for what felt like forever. Then a car that was passing by stopped. Fortunately, the car belonged to the Enforcement Directorate. The officer inside took me in.
I underwent multiple tests and scans. I have a few more scans lined up on Saturday, because I vomited.