Identified criminals who work as touts at the regional passport office in Brahmanbaria yesterday swooped down on three on-duty journalists with firearms and injured a Dhaka Tribune reporter.
The injured is Masuk Hridoy. The criminals also snatched his Canon DSLR camera and a Dell laptop.
The two other reporters were Independent TV’s district correspondent Jabed Rahim Bijon and local newspaper the Daily Sarod reporter Shafiqul Alam Swapan. The attack was launched by some eight persons led by Nasir Mia, 33, who identified himself as the elder brother of district unit Chhatra League President Masum Billah.
Swapan said they had gone to the passport office yesterday noon to gather information on the sufferings of service-seekers as activities at the office had been suspended for the last two weeks.
Nasir and his gang attacked the trio while they were speaking to the people on the office premises.
Swapan said: “Nasir hit Masuk’s head with his pistol, and kicked and punched him. Identifying himself as the elder brother of the district unit Chhatra League president, Nasir threatened to kill Masuk by pointing pistol on the chest. He also fired several blank shots.”
An accomplice of Nasir then snatched the DSLR camera and laptop of Masuk and a Panasonic video camera of Bijoy. Later police and local journalists rescued the trio.
Masuk filed a case against eight persons naming three including Nasir for attempted murder, mugging and use of arms and explosives.
Passport office Assistant Director Al Amin Sarker said at one point of the attack, Masuk had taken shelter in his room. Assistant Superintendent of Police Tapos Ranjan Ghosh said they would launch a drive to arrest the perpetrators.
