(RSF/IFEX) – On 11 February 2005, the Maoist extremist group Purba Bangla Communist Party (PBCP) claimed responsibility for a 5 February bomb attack outside the Khulna Press Club in southwest Bangladesh that fatally wounded journalist Sheikh Belaluddin Ahmed and injured three others. A letter signed by the group’s regional leader, Sayeed Hasan Suman, was left […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 11 February 2005, the Maoist extremist group Purba Bangla Communist Party (PBCP) claimed responsibility for a 5 February bomb attack outside the Khulna Press Club in southwest Bangladesh that fatally wounded journalist Sheikh Belaluddin Ahmed and injured three others.
A letter signed by the group’s regional leader, Sayeed Hasan Suman, was left in the mailbox of the Khulna-based daily “Purbanchal”. It said that it had many more journalists in its sights who risked suffering the same fate as Ahmed.
On the same day, Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia publicly voiced her regrets over the death of the daily “Sangram” correspondent, who died from his wounds six days after a bomb was left on his moped in front of the club.
Elsewhere, in a joint release, editors of 23 Dhaka dailies expressed their concern over repeated attacks on Bangladeshi journalists. “We note with regret that after each bombing or murder of a journalist the criminals manage to get away (. . .). It is time for concerted action. Journalists, editors and everyone involved in the media industry should unite to condemn these murders, the physical attacks and threats that journalists suffer,” said the statement.
“We plan on using this campaign to pressure the government into ensuring that thorough investigations are conducted and that the murderers of journalists are punished,” it added.
The Forum to Protect Journalists, a group formed on 12 February at a crisis meeting in the capital, have called on journalists to hold simultaneous demonstrations throughout Bangladesh on 19 February, at 11:00 a.m. (local time).
