ETV correspondent Liakat Ali Badal was assaulted when his crew travelled to a village to report on the torture of two women.
(Media Watch/IFEX) – Media Watch has been informed of two separate attacks on reporters.
In Narail, Moshiul Haque Mitu, 48, president of the Kalia Press Club and a Kalia upazila-based correspondent for the “Somokal” daily, suffered serious injuries after criminals threw bombs into his bedroom, on the morning of 11 July 2011. His wife, Rina Parvin, was also critically injured. They were taken to Khulna Medical College and Hospital and later transferred to the Dhaka Pongu Hospital.
Locals said that at around 3:00 am, criminals threw bombs through the window while the journalist and his wife were asleep. The incident occurred at Kolabaria village, in the Kalia upazila subdistrict. Sarwar Hossain, OC (officer in charge) of Naragati police station, said that the attackers might be the hired goons of some influential people. The journalist was probably targeted for filing a report against them, the officer said.
However, Moshiul’s younger brother, Monirul Haque Palash, said they had been involved in a longstanding land dispute with some people in the same village. He claimed that the couple was also shot.
In a separate incident in the northern district of Rangpur, a gang in Kashiganj village, Badarganj upazila, attacked the Rangpur-based correspondent for Ekushey Television (ETV), Liakat Ali Badal, leaving him seriously injured. The incident took place on 11 July when Badal went to the village, along with ETV staff reporter Johnson Mahbub, to cover a story about the torture of two women.
As soon as the ETV team reached the village, the gang besieged them and beat Badal with bamboo sticks. They also assaulted Mahbub and the cameraman and took away his camera. The news team was later confined to a house in the village.
After being informed of the incident, a team from Badarganj police station, led by deputy commissioner (DC) of Rangpur BM Enamul Hoque and police superintendent Saleh Mohammad Tanvir, rushed to the scene and came to the aid of the journalists. The police arrested three suspects following the airing of a news report on ETV and other media outlets.
