During an anti-narcotics drive at Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Udyan, allegations have been raised against police for beating two multimedia journalists, Dhaka University students, and general visitors.
Tofayel Ahmed, 25, a multimedia reporter for Banglanews24.com, was allegedly beaten up by police while protesting the assault. Kawsher Ahmed Ripon, 27, another multimedia reporter of Ajker Patrika, was also allegedly physically assaulted by police yesterday evening.
Videos circulating on social media show Tofayel being arbitrarily beaten with sticks by a group of police officers. He was later admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital by other policemen.
Tofayel told the media from the hospital that when he attempted to record video footage of the drive, police officers barred him from filming. Later, when he started recording again, an altercation broke out. At one stage, four to five police constables beat him, leaving him injured.
Ripon said, “While the police were beating Tofayel, I ran toward him and asked the policemen to stop. Then the police barred me from recording video and beat me with a stick on my leg.”
Contacted, Ramna Zone Deputy Commissioner Masud Alam said the incident occurred due to a “misunderstanding” between the police and journalists.
“A policeman was stabbed on his eyebrow by an addict, causing a deep injury. When charged that group, police mistakenly attacked the journalists as they were not carrying ID cards with them,” he said.
Masud apologised to the journalists and said police will take action against those policemen involved.
During the drive, three Dhaka University students were detained and later handed over to the university’s proctorial team.
One of the detainees, a student of Dhaka University’s Anthropology department and convener of Biplabi Chhatra Jubo Andolon’s Dhaka Metropolitan unit was also beaten by police, according to a video circulating on social media.
The video shows that while the DU student was speaking with Masud, who was leading the drive, another policeman grabbed him from behind, pushed him to the ground, and beat him with a stick.
He told The Daily Star that they were discussing about an event at Suhrawardy Udyan when they encountered the police while leaving.
He said, “They found nothing incriminating on us. When they failed to find anything, they brought an allegation that we supposedly had a heated altercation with them.”
“While we were discussing why we would behave that way with them, someone suddenly pulled me inside and started beating me. I suffered injuries to my head, hand, and leg. They also beat another friend of mine who was with me.”
Contacted for comment, Masud said, “He was arguing from the beginning and refused to allow a search.” The police officer added that they attempted to search him because they found him in a “specific location”.
Masud admitted that a policeman pulled the DU student down from behind when he was exaggerating the argument with him.
He intervened and stopped the policemen, Masud said.
Asked why about the reason of his detention, Masud said although no narcotics were found on him at the time, police recovered items used in the processing of narcotics.