Calgary police probe assault of RED FM news director

Police say they are investigating an assault on aCalgary radio host in the city's northeast.

RED FM, a South Asian radio station based in Calgary, issued a release Monday that said news director and host Rishi Nagar had been assaulted on Sunday.

Calgary police confirmed they are investigatingthe attack outside the Rio Banquet Hall, located in the 2800 block ofHopewell PlaceN.E.,addingthey're looking for two suspects.

Staff Sgt. John Guigon said Nagar was struck in the head but was not seriously hurt, and that the incident was captured on video.

"It was not a pleasant situation," he said.

"[It is] particularly troubling to us when a member of the media gets attacked in a democracy.... We're throwing resources at it."

Guigon said police are investigating whetherthe assault onNagarisconnected to hisreporting on another incident last week outside the DashmeshCulture Centre,located in the 100 block ofGurdwara Sahib BoulevardN.E.

At around 8 p.m. on Sept. 24,Guigon said, police received multiple calls from citizens indicating there were two men brandishing guns in the centre'sparking lot.

He said after police arrivedtwo men were arrested andtwo firearms were recovered. The pairface multiple charges, he said.

Nagar is a former University of Calgary senator and a former member of the Calgary Police Service's Anti-Racism Action Committee.

Nagar, who spoke to media on Tuesday with bandages over one eye, called the incident a "clear attack on journalism and the free press."

He said the assault won't silence or prevent him and his colleagues from continuing their work as journalists.

"They can break my eye, not my resolve," Nagar said on Tuesday.

Nagar added that doctors have told him he's at risk for retinal detachment and choroidal rupture, after the incident.