An ugly scene played out at a cafe in London last week as two Pakistani journalists clashed and verbally abused each other, showed a clip that went viral on social media. Safina Khan and Asad Malik used the choicest of abuses to target each other while others tried to defuse the situation.
The incident occurred during a press conference of Salman Akram Raja, an aide of Pakistan's jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and Secretary General of Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf (PTI).
Safina Khan, who lives in London and is associated with Pakistan's NEO News, has alleged that Asad Malik and other Pakistani journalists working for ARY News and Hum News ganged up on her and "threatened to kill" her.
"During Salaman Akram Raja's coverage, I was harassed and abused by Mohsin Naqvi, TV London reporter Asad Malik and ARY News reporter Farid, and Hum News reporter Rafeeq. They threatened to kill me," she wrote on social media.
Asad Malik, who works for a UK-based outlet, has trashed Khan's allegations as "false and baseless".
"These are false and baseless allegations, consistent with her pattern of past behavior. The facts are clear and supported by multiple eyewitnesses," he wrote on social media. He alleged Khan started verbally abusing him and others without any provocation.
Safina Khan also claimed she had reported similar threats in the past, but no action was taken.
Tagging the London police, she said these reporters will be responsible if anything happens to her. In an X thread, she also alleged that members of Imran Khan's party have been targeting her and even tried to carry out an "acid attack".
The clashing sides were heard verbally abusing each other's family in the viral clip, with words like "pig" being mentioned several times.
"If a man gets up and abuses me or my mother, I will abuse him twice as much as the women in his house. And the more you scream and abuse, the more you will get double the punishment," Safina Khan wrote in her post.
She also shared a video posted by a handle called "Pakistani", claiming it was edited and posted by ARY reporter Farid Qureshi from one of his fake accounts.
