Five policemen, including an assistant sub-inspector of Chittagong highway police, have been suspended for physically assaulting two journalists when they were recording videos of “extortion” by police members from different vehicles.
The accused policemen are assistant sub-inspector Masud Rana, and constables Lokman Hossain, Aman, Md Karim and Md Zaheer of Sitakunda-Terrigal police outpost.
They have been attached to the Comilla region, said Md Abdullah, inspector of Kumira highway police outpost, on Thursday.
The accused were taking money illegally from a passenger bus and a sand-carrying truck on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway at around 11:30pm on Tuesday.
At that time, two local journalists, MK Monir and Farhan Siddique, were physically assaulted by them while they were recording videos of the scene on their mobile phones.
The action was taken instantly against those police personnel when the matter came to light, said the inspector.
