On Aug 16th, Muslim Print, Electronic, and Social Media got together at Mr. Rahat Rao’s Coffee Shop at Surrey Central to show solidarity with a journalist, Mr. Haroon Ghaffar. Mr. Ghaffar is a longtime Muslim journalist currently serving as a news reporter for Omni News. During his recent coverage of a pro-Indian government event held by Lakshmi Narayan Mandir about Kashmir, Mr. Ghaffar was harassed and mistreated by of Mandir’s representative Mr. Parshotam Goel and asked to leave the Mandir after asking one question.
Muslim media representatives including Mr. Tarik Kiani from Sohni Dharti Pakistan, Mr, Naveed Waraich from Vancouver with Naveed Waraich. Mr, Intikhab Ahmed from Sohni Dharti Pakistan, Mr, Rahat Rao from Overseas View with Rahat Rao, Mr. Jafar Bhamji from Alameen, Mr. Harris Hafeez from Community Times Canada and Mr. Naseer Pirzada from the Miracle Media jointly condemned the action.
Mr. Kiyani chaired this meeting and he described the incident. All Media members strongly condemned this disgraceful behavior of Mandir’s representative Mr. Goel towards Mr. Ghaffar. They also planned how to handle these types of actions towards any journalist at any press conference or at any public place.
Muslim Media strongly believes that this kind of behavior and aggressive attitude by Mr. Goel should be strongly condemned by all communities. We hope that Mandir administration will realize and consider Mr. Goel’s act as truly inappropriate and in good faith will offer an apology to Haroon Ghaffar and OMNI news channel.
