Urging the editors to create public opinion against BNP-sponsored violence, Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Wednesday said the party (BNP) in fact, attacked the very existence of the state.
“BNP has created an unstable situation in the name of movement and an evil effort is being made to create instability and chaos in the country,” he said while exchanging views with the editors of daily newspapers at his office at the secretariat.
BNP activists attacked the residence of the chief justice, judges’ complex and hospital which never happened in the country’s history, he said.
Dr Hasan also urged the editors to take legal action against the BNP culprits responsible for attacking on-duty journalists on Saturday.
“The attackers are identified and they are leaders and workers of BNP-Jamaat. They cannot avoid the responsibility,” he said.
Hasan said, BNP killed a policeman brutally and burnt down about 19 vehicles including ambulances at Razarbagh Police Hospital and their brutality has crossed all limits like Israeli forces in Gaza.
The minister said the BNP is carrying out mayhem across the country in the name of enforcing blockade. Their criminal activities are not acceptable in any way, he said.
Hasan Mahmud said journalists, editors and mass media can mould up public opinion. But people of the country are unaware of their brutality even after attack on 30 on-duty journalists. Countrymen do not know about the severity and cruelty of the attack on newsmen, he added.
He said: “It is the responsibility of media to inform the countrymen about BNP’s mayhem. And it is needed to publish reports how the journalists were attacked.”
“People were not burnt down in the name of politics in the last couple of decades anywhere in the world. Even, BNP’s miscreants abused the journalists in the guise of newsmen wearing level of ‘press’,” he said.
Dr Hasan said public opinions should be created against this and every stakeholder including Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists and other journalists unions should raise their voice against the attack.
Hasan Mahmud regretted the silence of human rights advocates as they showed their complete inertia regarding the attack on journalists.
He assured giving assistance to injured newsmen from the Journalists’ Welfare Trust Fund.
The Daily Observer editor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury said many journalists were injured on Saturday. Even, BNP vandalized transports of mass media, he said.
He said, “We are concerned as they attacked the residence of Chief Justice, at a hospital and killed a cop. We think that attacks on journalists are tantamount to attack on mass media and freedom of expression and thought.”
The daily Amader Natun Somoy emeritus editor Naimul Islam Khan said the attack of BNP on media is nothing new. They have a history of storming into Jatiya Press Club (JPC) and attacking journalists when was in power. About 60 journalists were injured in that attack, he recalled, underscoring the necessity of documentation of the attacks.
The Daily Bhorer Kagoj editor Shyamal Dutta, Kaler Kantho editor Shahed Mohammad Ali, The Daily Sun chief editor Enamul Hoque Chowdhury, The Daily Kalbela editor Santosh Sharma, The Daily Desh Rupantar acting editor Mustafa Mamun, among others, addressed the meeting.
