PTI

Islamabad, Mar 17: In a crackdown on media reporting on the judiciary crisis in Pakistan, police on Friday entered the editorial headquarters of the private television news channel Geo and fired teargas shells.

Apparently irked by the live coverage of the pitched battles between protesting lawyers and political workers and the police against the suspension of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry by President Pervez Musharraf, a number of police personnel entered the Geo TV office and broke window panes with their batons.

The channel's senior editor Hamid Mir went live on air saying "dozens of policemen" have entered their news room and used teargas shells and started destroying property inside.

A number of vehicles parked in front of the Geo office, which is close to Parliament and the Supreme Court, where a judicial council is hearing charges against Chaudhry, were destroyed by police. The action came even as the judicial council proceedings were on.

The channel appealed to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durani to intervene and sort out the situation.

Durani, who came to the channel office, condemned the police action as "indefensible" and blamed the local police for the decision. He said he was trying to get the policemen out.