Advisory: with photo
Chittagong, Jan 28 (BDNEWS) - Defying repeated requests and a couple of barricades put up by party workers and his followers, BNP joint secretary general and fisheries and livestock minister Abdullah Al Noman attended a Jamaat meeting at Satkania Saturday.
Witnesses said the minister also roughed up a photojournalist at Chittagong Circuit House when he was taking photograph of the party activists who besieged the minister requesting him not to attend the meeting.
Noman used abusive words and threatened three photojournalists who came forward to protect their colleague, Deedrul Alam of Daily Jugantar, and asked them "not to exceed the limit."
Asked, the minister denied the allegation of assaulting the journalist, and said: "I never misbehaved with any journalist in my long political career."
The minister finally attended the meeting defying two barricades put up by the anti-Jamaat BNP activists of Satkania unit at Shah Amanat Bridge at Dohajari.
The presence of the minister at Jamaat meeting created commotion among the party workers especially anti-Jamaat elements and exposed his political strife with BNP standing committee member Col. (retd) Oli Ahmed.
Eyewitnesses said nearly 100 activists of BNP gathered at the circuit house and almost confined the minister before his departure for Satkania to attend the meeting as special guest at about 2 pm.
Some of the activists were also seen kneeling down before the minister when Noman sticked to his decision to attend the meeting, where ameer of the Jammat-e-Islami and Industries Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami was present as chief guest.
The workers laid down on the main entrance of the circuit house, but the minister boarded his car and left for the meeting dispersing the agitating workers.
Deedrul Alam, a senior photojournalist of the Daily Jugantar and also general secretary of the Chittagong Photojournalists Association, was subjected to his physical attack while taking snaps of the party workers who were driven away by the minister himself, the witnesses said.
The fisheries minister also showed immodest behaviour with three photojournalists Jobair Hossain Sikder of the Daily Star, Rajesh Chawkrabarti of the daily Somakal and Sohel Rana of the daily Azadi who came forward in aid of their assaulted fellow.
The minister also faced two barricades at Shah Amanat Bridge and Dohajari put up by the party activists. But police who escorted the minister removed the blockades.
The obligatory attendance of the fisheries minister Abdullah Al Noman, known for his liberal and secular politics, triggered strong criticism in the political circle in the port city.
The presence in the meeting is viewed as a vote sharing strategy for the next general elections between Noman and Shajahan Chowdhury of Jammat from Kotwali and Satkania constituencies, political analysts said.
The Chittagong Photojournalists Association and Chittagong Union of Journalists (CUJ) have criticised the attack on the photojournalist by the minister.
BDNEWS/2013 hrs.
