An operation by the Ramna Zone of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) at Suhrawardy Udyan turned controversial Monday evening after journalists and Dhaka University (DU) students were assaulted during what authorities described as an anti-drug drive.
The operation began around 7:30pm.
DMP Ramna Zone Deputy Commissioner (DC) Masud said seven to eight people were detained and around 60 to 70 police personnel were deployed.
“We didn’t arrest that many today — the point was really just to shake them up,” he said.
Among those injured were Kawsar Ahmed Ripon, a multimedia reporter for Ajker Patrika; Tofayel Ahmed, a multimedia reporter for Banglanews24; Nayem Uddin, a DU student; and a police constable.
Ripon said of police first assaulted his colleague Tofayel, and when he intervened, he was also beaten. “I ran over asking why they were hitting him, and because I said something, they took away my phone and started hitting me too.”
Separate footage showed DU Anthropology student Nayem Uddin being beaten by officers after an argument broke out.
Nayem said he and his friends had been at the park discussing an event called “Bahu-Bhashar Sandhya” and encountered police on their way out.
“They found nothing on us — nothing at all. Then they claimed we had argued with them. While that conversation was still going on, one of them suddenly grabbed me and dragged me inside and beat me, and they beat my friend who was with me too,” he said.
He added that his phone was confiscated and that he was held at the police station for an extended period without being allowed to contact anyone.
When asked about the nature of the operation, DC Masud said it was part of a routine “anti-drug drive”.
“It’s against drugs. By 8 or 9 at night, nobody else is around — these people are sitting in the pitch-dark jungle. This kind of operation runs regularly; today’s was just a bit larger in scale,” he said.
According to Masud, a group of eight to ten police personnel became separated from the main team during the operation and encountered a group of DU students allegedly smoking marijuana. One of them identified himself as a DU student, and a scuffle broke out.
Masud said people who smoke marijuana “usually carry small knives or scissors to prepare it,” and something of that sort was allegedly used to strike a constable above the eye, leaving a deep wound.
Regarding the journalists, Masud said officers later claimed they did not realize one of the individuals was a journalist.
“We didn’t realize he was a journalist because he had nothing around his neck,” he said, referring to the absence of a visible press ID.
The journalists, however, maintained the assault was deliberate.
Masud said he personally spoke with the journalists to address the situation.
“I’ve talked it through and things have been resolved. I told them this would never have happened if we’d been there,” he said.
In total, three DU students and three to four others were detained. Those who “argued back” were primarily the ones taken in, he added.
The university students were later released after the DU proctor sent representatives, while the remaining detainees are expected to be presented before a mobile court the following day.