Police assault on journalists
AC Shahidul suspended in face of protests
Tejgaon senior assistant commissioner of police, Md Shahidul Islam, who was withdrawn to the police headquarters on charge of assaulting three photojournalists on Saturday, was finally suspended on Sunday afternoon in the face of protests by journalists.
Journalists on Sunday took to the streets in protest at Saturday’s police attack on their fellows in the city and demanded immediate arrest of the cops responsible for the excesses.
Inspector general of police Hassan Mahmud Khandker told New Age on Sunday night that Shahidul Islam had been suspended and attached to the Chittagong Range.’
The police headquarters said the home ministry had approved the suspension following a recommendation from the assistant inspector general of police (establishment), Aminul Islam.
The police sources said that the suspension order was issued hours after Shahidul had been brought back to duty and transferred to the special training centre at Betbuniya in Rangamati.
Police beat up and hurled abuses at three photojournalists of daily Prothom Alo – Jahidul Karim Selim, Khaled Sarkar and Sajid Hossain – who were taking snaps of a student demonstration at Agargaon in the capital on Saturday afternoon. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Tejgaon division) senior AC Shahidul Islam led the attack.
The injured journalists had been admitted to Trauma Centre in the capital.
The police, however, were yet to take action against the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police inspector (investigation) Ahmed Fakir, who in the photographs published by different dailies was seen kicking one of the three injured journalists.
Journalists’ leaders in a press statement on Sunday announced protest programmes for today and Tuesday.
They said that journalists working outside the capital would hold rallies today to register protests against the brutal police attacks.
A protest rally will be held on Tuesday morning in front of the National Press Club, if the offenders, including Shahidul, are not arrested and brought to book by Monday, the statement said.
The media professionals, who continued demonstrations since the killing of journalist couple Sagar and Runi on February 11, said the authorities must arrest all involved in the brutal attack on the journalists.
The Dhaka Reporters Unity president, Shakhawat Hossain Badshah, said that repression on journalists by the ruling Awami League and police continued despite assurances by home minister Sahara Khatun safety of journalists would be ensured.
He said the minister on April 7 had told journalists that she had asked law enforcers to ensure safety and security of journalists carrying out their professional duties and stop repression on them.
International Federation of Journalists’ South Asia programme manager Sukumar Muralidharan expressed solidarity with the journalists’ cause and told the rally that they were concerned about the repression and attack on journalists carrying out their professional duties in Bangladesh.
‘Repression on journalists should be stopped by any means,’ Sukumar told New Age after attending the rally.
Prior to the rally, the journalists blocked the road stretch from Paltan to Foreign Ministry intersection for two hours in the morning, causing traffic congestion on the first working day of the week.
Leaders of both factions of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, Dhaka Union of Journalists, National Press Club, DRU and Bangladesh Photojournalists Association attended the rally.
On Saturday, the police hours after the attack on journalists had suspended one sub-inspector, two assistant sub-inspectors and six constables, and had closed Shahidul.
An agronomist, ShahiduI of Rangpur was recruited to Bangladesh Police as an officer of 25 BCS (police cadre) in August 2006.
The DMP said that a one-member committee set up with its joint commissioner (headquarters) Shahabuddin Koreshi had started investigation of the incident.
Political, socio-cultural, rights and professional groups continued protesting at the police attack and demanded punitive action against the cops responsible.
A delegation of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by it standing committee member Moyeen Khan, on Sunday visited the injured journalists at the Trauma Centre and condemned the police attack.
Rights watchdog Ain o Salish Kendra in a statement protested at the brutal attack on journalists.
No case or general diary was filed with the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station till Sunday night.
Courtesy of New Age
