Police beat up a journalist at KM Das Lane in Dhaka’s Wari area on Thursday.
The journalist, Tuhin Hawlader, is a court correspondent of daily newspaper Bangladesh Pratidin. He is also a practicing lawyer.
Injured Tuhin said he was on his way home when Wari police station Sub-Inspector (SI) Mahbubur Rahman, another policeman and an Ansar member stopped his motorcycle at KM Das Lane in the afternoon.
SI Mahbub then asked him why he has come out from home and barred him from entering the lane in view of the lockdown.
Tuhin said he identified himself as a journalist to the SI and told him that he lived in a house in that lane.
“SI Mahbub said he understands that I am a journalist, and then he tried to take my motorcycle keys. When I tried to stop him, he started getting angry and yelling obscenities. At one point he started beating me," said the journalist.
Tuhin later received primary treatment from Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Reached for comment, SI Mahbub told Dhaka Tribune that he had asked Tuhin to stop the motorbike, and claimed: “He [Tuhin] then started misbehaving. Later, when I tried taking his motorcycle keys, he hit me."
It led to a minor fistfight between the two of them, he claimed.
When asked about the incident, Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Deputy Commissioner (Wari Division) Shah Iftekhar Ahmed said he heard about the matter and investigation into the incident was underway.
Later, Wari zone Assistant Commissioner Md Hannanul Islam confirmed that SI Mahbub was withdrawn and attached to Rajarbagh Police Lines.
"This was an unfortunate incident. We are investigating. Further departmental action will follow [against SI Mahbub] if he is found guilty," Hannanul said.
