TV journalists attacked by miscreants in Amaravati during Andhra capital change protests

AMARAVATI: Unidentified miscreants on Friday beat up journalists, including a woman, of different Telugu television news channels near the site where farmers had been agitating against any move to shift the state capital, police said.

The miscreants also attacked police personnel, injuring a sub-inspector and a constable, the police said adding that a case has been registered and a search is on for the culprits.

The incident happened at Uddandarayunipalem village, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the development of Andhra Pradesh capital city in October 2015.

The miscreants attacked the woman journalist when she tried to interview BJP state president Kanna Lakshminarayana, the police said.

They objected to her interviewing the BJP leader.

Reporters of other television channels came to her rescue but they were also badly beaten up, the police said.

Two reporters sustained injuries in the incident.

Police arrived and took the injured reporters to the Secretariat dispensary for treatment.

Guntur Range Inspector General of Police Vineet Brijlal said in a statement that they have taken a serious view of the incident.

Some miscreants, in the garb of protesting against the move to shift the state capital, attacked the TV news reporters and misbehaved with the woman journalist.

They also attacked the police personnel when they tried to prevent the act, the IG said.

Earlier in the day, unidentified persons hurled stones at a bus carrying students of SRM University Amaravati at Tulluru, the police said.

The bus window was shattered but none was hurt, they said.

The university authorities then asked the remaining buses that were picking students to return home and announced a holiday.

Police sources said no arrests have been made in connection with these incidents.