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Azamgarh hotel faces police action for hosting French scribes

NAT65National/Media/Terrorism/CrimeAzamgarh hotel faces police action for hosting French scribesLucknow, Oct 6 IANS The Azamgarh district administration Monday lodged a police complaint against the owner of a hotel for letting out rooms to two foreign journalists who interviewed the families of two suspected terrorists, officials said.According to reports, two journalists representing the news channel France 24 went to Azamgarh's Sanjarpur village, about 270 km from this Uttar Pradesh capital, to interview family members of the two terror suspects Atif and Sajid, who were killed in a shootout with police in New Delhi last month.The journalists, Lise Richard Thomas and Capucine Clair, checked in at the Hotel Gangotri in Azamgarh Oct 1 and left it Oct 4.Defending the move, Azamgarh superintendent of police Ramit Sharma said: "We have not taken any action against any journalist, foreign or Indian, and the cases have been slapped against the hotel owner under section 7-14 of the Foreigners Act as he did not give us prior information about hosting the foreign journalists."Besides interviewing the family members of the slain terror suspects, the French journalists also went to some madrassas and priests of mosques and interviewed locals.Over a dozen terror suspects, including the two slain youth, belong to the Sanjarpur village of Azamgarh district, which has drawn mediapersons from far and wide for the past few weeks to cover the news.In the last two months nearly a dozen youths hailing from Azamgarh have been arrested on charges of being involved in terror bombings in various parts of the country.--Indo-Asian News Servicerr/dd/vt268 Words*06101944