(RSF/IFEX) – A police officer assigned to the Sadar police station in Khulna was fired for “negligence” on 6 February 2005, the day after the bombing at the Khulna Press Club in which four journalists were wounded, two seriously. The dismissal came the same day that journalists demonstrated in Khulna to demand the replacement of […]
(RSF/IFEX) – A police officer assigned to the Sadar police station in Khulna was fired for “negligence” on 6 February 2005, the day after the bombing at the Khulna Press Club in which four journalists were wounded, two seriously.
The dismissal came the same day that journalists demonstrated in Khulna to demand the replacement of the city’s new police superintendent, Javed Patwari, and a thorough investigation into why a patrol unit that was supposed to have been protecting the press club was withdrawn on the evening of the bombing.
Alhaj Liaquat Ali, editor of “Dainik Purbanchal”, said during the demonstration that the failure to punish those responsible for the murders of journalists Manik Saha and Humayun Kabir Balu last year in Khulna had fostered a climate of impunity that permitted the 5 February bombing.
Sheikh Belaluddin Ahmed, a correspondent for the daily “Sangram”, and Sheikh Jahid Hossain, a photographer with the daily “Jugantor”, are still in hospital in serious condition as a result of the injuries they sustained in the bombing. Ahmed is in intensive care at a Dhaka military hospital, while Hossain is being treated in a Khulna clinic.
