Journos attacked while on duty

6 injured by 'ruling party men'

Alleged Chhatra League men attacked journalists for the second straight day yesterday.

At least five photojournalists and a reporter sustained injuries in the attack carried out near the capital's Science Lab Intersection.

Witnesses and the injured said after dispersing a procession of students near Jhigatola around 1:15pm, a group of policemen came near City College.

All of a sudden, around 150 alleged BCL men, armed with sticks and machetes and wearing helmets, started shouting at some of the dispersed protesters there.

Around 50 journalists were present there and some photojournalists started taking pictures. At this, the alleged BCL men got furious and asked for not taking photos.

Freelance photographer Rahat Karim was on a nearby footbridge. Suddenly, the alleged BCL men started throwing brickbats at him. Later, they held him by his t-shirt and started beating him with rod and sticks, leaving him injured.

Rahat was taken to nearby Popular Hospital.

The stick-wielding attackers then chased away all the journalists from Science Lab area and also threw brickbats at them.

Around the same time, AP photographer AM Ahad was beaten mercilessly by the attackers near Science Lab area, witnesses said, adding the alleged BCL men also damaged his cell phone and camera.

He was taken to the emergency unit of Lab Aid Hospital.

A footage that went viral on social media shows some youths in helmets surrounding and beating Ahad.

Ahad kept begging them to let him go but they did not stop. At one point, he fell on the ground. The attackers started beating him again.

Palash of Daily Bonik Barta, Ibnul Asad Zawad of The Daily Janakantha, Rimon of US-based Zuma Press and Enamul Hasan, a photography student of Pathsala South Asian Media Institute, was also injured in similar attacks.

Bernicat's motorcade attacked

Ahmed Deepto, a staff reporter of Bangla daily Prothom Alo, also came under attack near Science Lab area. He sustained injuries to his back and left hand

A car of private television channel Nagorik TV was also vandalised by the attackers.

Many other journalists, including female reporters, were threatened as well.

On Saturday, police and alleged BCL men beat up three journalists of The Daily Star and molested another in Jhigatola.

In the same area close to a ruling party office, journalist Faisal Hossain from Channel 24 along with camera person Krishna Sarker was beaten up around 7:00pm while doing live broadcast.

Meanwhile, police detained two on-duty photo journalists of Counter Foto -- Piyas Biswas and Mashrukh Ahmed -- near Road 4/A yesterday. Another photojournalist of the photo agency -- Nazmul Nahid -- was held the previous day. The three were kept at Dhanmondi Police Station, its OC Abdul Latif told The Daily Star around 9:30pm.

The Daily Star tried to contact BCL President Rezwanul Haque Chowdhury Shovon and General Secretary Golam Rabbani for comments. Rezwanul's cell was found switched off while Rabbani did not pick up the call.

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