ISLAMABAD, June 18: A journalist working for local and international newspapers was beaten up, allegedly by policemen, here on Saturday.

“Four persons wearing police uniforms stopped me near G-8 Markaz and started beating me,” Waqar Kiani told Dawn fromhospital bed. “I have injuries in the back and on my face. They had come in a police van.”

The assailants escaped from the scene, leaving behind Mr Kiani injured on a road. The journalist was taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.

He was attacked apparently in connection with his appearance in a TV talk show a few days ago.

Working for Guardian, Mr Kiani was “abducted, blindfolded, beaten and burned” in July 2008, according to the newspaper.

He was working “on a story about alleged cooperation between Pakistani and British intelligence in the detention and abuse of suspected militants” along with London-based reporter Ian Cobain, also of Guardian.