Dhaka: At least 25 journalists were injured when a group of ruling-party men attacked a journalists' rally in Bangladesh's south-western Kustia district on Monday.
The rally, attended by the country's leading journalists, was arranged to protest against alleged repression and torture on local journalists by a ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker.
Witnesses said over 50 activists of the Jatiaytabadi Jibo Dal, the youth front of the ruling BNP, carried out the attack soon after the protest meeting started at around 1100 hours.
It is alleged the district BNP health affairs secretary AAK Koreshi Talal led the attack.
The Bangladesh Observer editor, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Al Mamun Sagar, Munshi Harunur Rashid and Mizanur Rahman Vija were among those who were critically injured in the attack.
They are undergoing treatment at the Kustia Sadar Hospital.
Journalists of south-western districts and sub-districts had arranged the rally to protest against filing of false cases against three local journalists by Shahidul Islam, MP, and one of his followers.
The attackers continued their vandalism at the meeting venue for more than ten minutes when a handful of policemen deployed there remained as silent spectators.
Few other police rushed to the spot only after the ruling-party men left the scene, said one of the journalist who attended the protest rally.
Journalists condemned the attack and the President and Secretary of the National Press Club, Reazuddin Ahmed and Shawkot Mahmud respectively expressed deep concern over the attack.
They demanded exemplary punishment for the attackers.
Asked for comment, the state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, told reporters that he was trying to talk to the local administration to know the matter.
Journalists in Bangladesh's southern part are most vulnerable attack. They are frequently threatened by different influential quarters.
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