C T Online Desk: A group of individuals associated with the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, assaulted five journalists from various television channels late on Monday and into the early hours of Tuesday allegedly for calling the late party leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee a war criminal.
The incident unfolded in front of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in Dhaka’s Shahbagh area.
Among the injured, reporter Sheikh Farid and RTV cameraman Ayatullah Manik were targeted. Additionally, Jamuna TV reporter Shawkat Manju Shanto, along with Mahfuzur Rahman Mithu and cameraman Bishonath Sarker, also faced attacks from the crowd gathered around BSMMU, where Sayedee died.
At around 11:30pm on Monday, when RTV reporters reached the venue and got out of the vehicle, a group of unruly people swooped on them, shouting: “How dare you call our leader a war criminal? Sayedee is our leader, Sayedee is the protector of Islam.”
During the attack, the assailants snatched various pieces of equipment, including a camera, backpack, and wallet.
Around 11pm, when Shokat Manju Shanto, a reporter for Jamuna TV, went live from the hospital where he addressed Sayeedee as a convicted war criminal, activists encircled him and started assaulting him.
Wearing a helmet and vest inscribed Jamuna TV, Mahfuzur Rahman Mithu, another photojournalist who went inside the hospital to take photos, also came under attack.
All the injured received treatment at hospitals, as some of them sustained serious injuries, according to the management of the outlets.
Sayedee, a former Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker from Pirojpur, was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal 1 in February 2013 as he was found to have been involved in killings in Pirojpur during the War of Liberation and held the position of Jamaat nayeb-e-ameer.
