Comilla, April 13 (BDNEWS) – A gang of armed cadres of BNP and its youth front Juba Dal stormed a seminar venue near Debidwar Press Club in Comilla Thursday afternoon and foiled the function organised to protest repression on journalists in the country as well as around the globe.
The cadres, equipped with deadly weapons, swooped on the seminar adjacent to the press club and forcibly dragged the participants, including three veteran editors, who joined there from Dhaka.
The three editors, Gaziul Hasan Khan of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), Rashed Chowdhury of BDNEWS and Naimul Islam Khan of Amader Somoy, and senior journalists Saiful Islam Talukdar, Zakaria Kajal and Ekramullah Hil Kafi came under the attack by the unruly cadres of BNP and Juba Dal.
The cadres also looted chairs and microphones from the spot.
The BNP and Juba Dal cadres led by Kader Master, Buddhu Pathan, Shafiq and their cadres, Kopal Kata Akhter, Rickshaw Jashim, Mafiz, Mizan, Suman and 20-30 others attacked the seminar within minuets of its beginning.
Organisers alleged that the attackers were the henchmen of Manjurul Ahsan Munshi, local lawmaker from the ruling BNP, who was recently awarded six-month imprisonment by a court in a contempt of court case.
When BSS Chief Editor Gaziul Hasan Khan and Editor of Amader Somoy Naimul Islam Khan contacted Munshi over phone, the lawmaker said why the function was organised without informing him. "Why you did not inform me before coming in my area," the lawmaker questioned the editors.
The organisers said, they arranged the seminar to protest against journalists' killing and repression in the country and all over the world.
The cadres also threatened to kill ABM Atiqur Rahman Bashar, president of Debidwar Press Club.
Earlier on Wednesday, the press club committee hired the Utsab Community Centre for the programme but later changed the venue in face of criminal attack.
The BNP cadres put the community centre under lock and key.
BDNEWS/1900 hrs
