Bangladesh’s national gymnasts, including Shishir Ahmed Shanto and Abu Sayeed Rafi, were attacked by individuals not associated with the national team at the National Sports Council gymnasium in the capital’s Paltan area Wednesday.
At around 12:30pm, approximately 10 people forcibly entered the gymnasium and caused havoc, according to the victim players, coach, and the Bangladesh Gymnastics Federation general secretary.
“They disrespected the national players. Most of the attackers were non-gymnasts. They used abusive language and even issued life threats. Necessary steps must be taken,” former national gymnast and BGF general secretary Habibur Rahman Jamil told Dhaka Tribune.
Jamil added that they had been receiving threats following the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 5.
They were asked to leave the premises.
National gold-winning gymnast Shanto, a second-year student at Uttara University, said: “I was wearing a Bangladesh flag around my neck. Saddam, an Ansar player who hasn’t made the national team in many years, tried to pull the flag from me. They tried to force us out of the gymnasium and also attacked our teammate Rafi.”
Rafi, a student at Daffodil University, won a bronze medal at the Mikhail Voronin Cup 2020 in Russia when he was just 16.
Gymnastics coach Abdullah Al Masum told Dhaka Tribune that they had been receiving “political threats” multiple times since August 6.
“There was only one gymnast (Saddam) among the attackers, but he was sidelined a long time ago,” said Masum during a phone call.
Shanto also mentioned that some of their weight machines and the mouse from the CCTV camera had been stolen over the past few days.
“As we gymnasts are all students, we became vigilant to secure the gymnastics equipment. That’s why we came to the gymnasium to train and also to ensure everything here is safeguarded,” said Shanto.
An attempt to reach Saddam was made over the phone, but the contact number was found to be switched off.