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Published : 29 Nov 2015, 10:41 PM
The protesting workers beat up bdnews24.com’s photojournalist Tanvir Ahammed, who went to cover the incident on Sunday.
The workers assaulted at least three other journalists.
Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Annisul Huq had apparently been confined inside the Bangladesh Truck and Covered Van Drivers Union office while protesters clashed with police for almost three hours.
The angry workers alleged journalists had ignored reporting the ‘death’ of one of their colleagues.
“You are agents of the mayor,” one of them said. “We’ll beat and drive all the journalists away.”
It later turned out that a worker had been injured and taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
But a rumour about the man’s ‘death’ had infuriated the workers.
bdnews24.com’s Tanvir said a group of workers surrounded him when he was taking photographs of the clash between the workers and police.
They started beating him when he tried to stop them from snatching away his camera.
One of them struck him on the head with a brick from behind, Tanvir said.
“They asked me why I was taking photos. Someone hit me on my head from behind during the conversation,” he said.
“They snatched and smashed my camera as I fell on the ground,” he added.
He was treated at a local hospital.
The agitated workers also stoned the reporter and camera crew of Jamuna Television when they were filming the assault on other journalists.
Jamuna TV reporter Kamrul Hasan told bdnews24.com that they were attacked at around 3:30pm.
“The mayor was confined. The workers blocked the street with burning tyres. I was on a live broadcast. Ruhul Amin was the camera person,” he said.
“We pointed the camera to a place where the workers were assaulting another TV reporter and a camera person. It was shown live on air.
“There were also some photojournalists with us,” he said.
“The workers turned violent when they saw us shooting the incident. They threw stones at us. It could have been more serious but we averted that somehow,” he added.
Some journalists were driven out of the area.
A reporter of Dipto Television was also assaulted.
