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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
Journalists covering the external affairs ministry are planning to meet the Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani in next few days to demand immediate release of Iftikar Geelani.
The Delhi Police special branch arrested Geelani on Sunday under Officials Secrets Act for possessing classified information regarding troop movement on the Indo-Pak border.
They have signed a petition alleging that Geelani has been framed in the case. They have also demanded a fair probe into the allegations against Geelani, who has been covering all the developments in the capital, including the defence ministry for his paper.
The arrest, however, has split the media, with one section vouching for Geelani's integrity, with another wanting the police to continue with their investigations.
Though the Delhi Union of Journalists has demanded the immediate release of Geelani, a rebel group is planning to meet Advani to ask him 'not to take any decision in a hurry' and let the 'court decide whether Geelani is guilty'.
"The government of India should find out how he got his accreditation in the first place. Now that he has been arrested under the Official Secrets Act his accreditation should be cancelled immediately," a senior journalist belonging to this lobby said.
Meanwhile the Delhi police have refused to say anything on the matter. A senior police officer said that they would now be concentrating on how Geelani got the classified information about troop movement that was saved in his laptop computer.
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