Dhaka University Journalists' Association (DUJA) staged a human chain, protesting an attack on its members by activists of Jatiotabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) inside Shahbagh Police Station.
On Saturday morning, the human chain took place at the base of the Aparajeyo Bangla sculpture on the Dhaka University campus
Programme brought together current and former DUJA members alongside journalists from several national outlets. Speakers demanded swift identification of the attackers, registration of a formal case, legal action, disciplinary measures from the university administration, and a guarantee of a free press environment on campus.
DUJA general secretary Liton Islam said thar the attack, carried out inside a police station while journalists were on duty, was not merely condemnable but a direct blow to independent journalism.
He called for faster and clearer responses from both the university administration and law enforcement.
Newly elected DUJA president Manjur Hossain Mahi said that JCD activists had first obstructed journalists from doing their work at Shahbagh Police Station, and when the journalists protested on the spot, the activists attacked them.
"This is deeply regrettable," he said, adding that he expects the university administration and security forces to accept the association’s demands without further delay and take effective action against those responsible.
Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) president Shahidul Islam warned that when law enforcement agencies, instead of protecting the public, side with the powerful and criminalise the victims, the state takes on the character of fascism.
He demanded that the police officers who failed to protect the journalists on duty be immediately identified and dismissed from service, and called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to act without delay.
“Those who attacked and brutalised members of DUJA must be brought to justice immediately”, Shahidul Islam said. “If this government chooses not to act, the dreams we held of democracy and press freedom will remain nothing but dreams, and this government will emerge as fascism in a new form.
Daily Campus Editor and former DUJA president Mahbub Rony pointed out that no case has been filed yet, despite the incident occurring inside a police compound. “We demand the police register the case immediately, investigate, and take action against the guilty”, he said.
He also noted that those identified as attackers were students of the same university as the journalists targeted, and called on the administration to hold them accountable.
He added that JCD, as an organisation, cannot escape responsibility since the attackers had gone to the police station under its banner.
The Daily Star journalist and former DUJA general secretary Sirajul Islam Rubel said DUJA's president and general secretary had gone to Shahbagh Police Station the previous day to file a complaint and waited for four hours, but the officer-in-charge was nowhere to be found.
“Why is there so much delay?” he asked, noting that press freedom should have been at its highest since the political changes following August 5.
Former DUJA general secretary Motahar Hossain said he had been working as a journalist for eight years and had never seen anything like this.
“DUJA always stood by students during their movements. And yet JCD attacked the very people who covered those movements.”
DUJA general secretary Mahadi Hasan warned that if demands are not met promptly, the association will be forced to launch larger, harder programmes involving campus organisations and civil society groups across the country.
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