(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has urged the authorities to do their utmost to investigate growing attacks and threats to journalists including one in which three men marched a journalist to a cemetery at gunpoint and tried to bury him alive. “It is essential that the instigators of these abuses be punished so that journalists can again […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has urged the authorities to do their utmost to investigate growing attacks and threats to journalists including one in which three men marched a journalist to a cemetery at gunpoint and tried to bury him alive.
“It is essential that the instigators of these abuses be punished so that journalists can again work in safety,” said the organisation.
On 17 May 2005, Syed Monjur Morshed, editor-in-chief and publisher of the English language bi-monthly “The Horizon”, was attacked by four men as he returned to his home in Gora near the capital Dhaka. They rushed at him and stabbed him in the abdomen with a knife. He was taken to hospital bleeding heavily and underwent an operation on 19 May.
Security forces who were at the scene failed to intervene during the attack. Morshed therefore decided not to report the incident to the police, since it seemed pointless.
The editor had received numerous threats in the days leading up to the assault, after he wrote an article exposing the fraudulent activities of real estate developer Iqbal Sazzad. He had also tipped off several major national dailies about cases of embezzlement that, once revealed in the press, led to the developer’s arrest.
RSF said it is deeply shocked by a sickening attack on GM Shahid, editor-in-chief of the weekly “Aparadh Barta” and correspondent for the daily “Dainik Khobor Patra”, on 21 May in Rupganj, close to the capital.
Shahid was returning home in the evening in a rickshaw when he was jumped by three men who threatened him at gunpoint and stuck adhesive tape over his mouth to muffle his cries for help. They then took him to a cemetery where they beat him with a hammer and tried to bury him alive.
The editor managed to fight back and yell for help, forcing his three assailants to flee the scene. It was three hours later before local residents came to assist him and take him to a doctor, where he received first aid. The attack was very probably linked to his work as a journalist.
In a separate incident, in Golachipa, southern Bangladesh, Sumit Kumar Dutta, of the daily “Dainik Ittefaq”, received death threats from Hye Gazi, a known local criminal, who was angry over Dutta’s articles on his embezzlement in the area. Gazi also threatened other journalists if they wrote articles about his activities. Dutta reported the threats and asked for protection from the local authorities.
