Two journalists were physically assaulted by policemen while taking photos of a BNP procession in Poddar Bari area of the town on Saturday.
The victim journalists are Zakaria Chowdhury, district representative of Bangladesh Pratidin, and Abdur Rauf Selim of SATV.
The district BNP took out a torch procession around 7pm on Saturday. At this time, some journalists including Zakaria and Selim went to the Poddar Bari area of the town to collect photos and videos.
While they were taking photos and footage of the procession, a member of the DB challenged them. Though they introduced themselves as journalists, they were beaten and verbally abused and taken to the intelligence office.
While talking to the victims, they said that the DB team was led by Sub-Inspector Riaz.
The DB official became more aggressive when they introduced themselves as journalists.
Habiganj Superintendent of Police SM Murad Ali told UNB that there was a misunderstanding between some of the journalists and the policemen. He said that those journalists were not introduced properly to the DB men.
“I ordered the official to release the journalists immediately,” SP Murad said.
At the time of writing this report, journalists are having an urgent meeting on the issue at the Press Club.