A journalist with Hindi newspaper Dainik Jagran was hospitalised after being attacked on Wednesday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district while covering a Bharatiya Janata Party protest against the Pahalgam terror attack, PTI reported.

The journalist, Rakesh Sharma, said he was covering the protest led by legislators Devinder Manyal, Rajiv Jasrotia and Bharat Bhushan when a party worker, Himanshu Sharma, accused journalists of using “separatist language” while asking security-related questions.

Though Manyal was responding calmly, other party office-bearers were allegedly irked when some journalists asked if the Pahalgam terror attack showed the Centre’s failure to stop cross-border infiltration.

As tensions rose, other journalists decided to leave and boycott the protest. However, Himanshu Sharma, joined by several others, then assaulted Rakesh Sharma publicly, PTI reported. He was later taken to Government Medical College by Deputy Superintendent of Police Ravinder Singh.

In response to the incident, a group of journalists staged a protest at Shaheedi Chowk in Kathua, wearing black armbands.

They declared that they would boycott all BJP events until action was taken against those responsible. They also met with Kathua Senior Superintendent of Police Shobhit Saxena and demanded that a first information report be filed, PTI reported.