At least 10 journalists, who were covering the news of a scuffle between doctors and a patient’s relatives, were injured in an attack carried out allegedly by interns at the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital on Sunday night.
The injured have received medical attention at local clinics, while one journalist – Jamuna TV camera person Rasel Mahmud – was shifted to the capital’s Apollo Hospital in critical condition.
Sources said the initial scuffle between interns and a patient’s relatives broke out when an intern named Subrata refused to check on the patient at ward number 13, reportedly because he was busy watching an Indian TV serial.
When journalists from the electronic and print media arrived at the scene to cover the incident, the interns – equipped with hockey sticks and bamboo sticks – attacked the media workers. The interns also allegedly snatched truncheons from police personnel and beat up the journalists in the presence of law enforcers, smashing their TV cameras.
The injured included Channel 24 camera person Raihan Ali and reporter Abrar Shair, Jamuna TV camera person Rasel Mahmud, Kaler Kantha photojournalist Salauddin Ahmed, ATN News camera person Mahfuzur Rahman Rubel, Maasranga TV camera person Sayed Masud and Independent TV reporter Mynul Hasan Jony.
Protesting the attack, a large number of local journalists staged a sit-in programme in front of the RMCH emergency department on Sunday night, while local lawmaker and president of the RMCH conducting council Fazle Hossain Badshah, lawmaker Ayen Uddin and Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mahbubur Rahman spoke to journalists at the spot.
The RMP commissioner later closed the Officer-in-Charge of Boalia police station, Sayedur Rahman, and assured justice for the journalists.
Meanwhile, a large number of journalists yesterday brought out a procession from the city’s Shaheb Bazar Zero Point and held a rally demanding immediate punishment of the attackers. A wide selection of people including Rajshahi Rakkha Sangram Parishad joined the rally to express their solidarity with the journalists’ demands.
Rajshahi journalists gave the police administration a 24-hour ultimatum to arrest the attackers and announced the holding of rallies tomorrow at every upazila and district of the greater Rajshahi region.
When contacted, RMCH Director Brig Gen AKM Nasir Uddin told the Dhaka Tribune that the hospital administration held an emergency meeting at noon yesterday to form a seven-member body, headed by himself, and probe the incident.
On the other hand, the intern doctors of the hospital have started an indefinite work abstention programme since yesterday.
