Tejgaon AC closed and 9 policemen suspended for assaulting journos (Video)

The DMP suspended nine policemen and closed an assistant commissioner for torturing three photojournalists of the daily Prothom Alo while covering an incident at the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar on Saturday.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police, meanwhile, set up a one-member committee comprising Sahabuddin Koreshi, a joint police commissioner, to probe the incident, told Additional Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman, in-charge of Media and Community Service of DMP.

The suspended policemen are: Sub-inspector Zahir, Assistant Sub-inspectors Shafiq and Nazmul and six constables – Motiur, Razzaq, Shajahan, Joynal, Ratan and Jahangir.

The DMP commissioner took instant action against Tejgaon AC Shahidul Islam and the others when journalists called him over phone and protested the assault, the official said.

Contacted, Imam Hossain, deputy commissioner of Tejgaon Division, confirmed the action against the AC.

The injured photojournalists of the daily Prothom Alo - Khaled Sarkar, Sajid Hossain and Zahidul Karim - were rushed to National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (Nitor), popularly known as Pangu Hospital.

Kamrul Hasan, special correspondent of Prothom Alo, said police led by the AC suddenly swooped on the three photojournalists and beat them up mercilessly when they were taking photos of the students of Agargaon Women Polytechnic Institute, who started demonstration on the Rokeya Sarani at 11:00am.

The law enforcers then took the journalists to Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station and physically assaulted them again.

On information, their colleagues rushed to the police station and took them to the hospital.

The DMP has formed a one-member committee with joint commissioner Shahabuddin Koreshi to investigate the police action on the journalists.

In the morning, around 300 students of the polytechnic institute blocked Rokeya Sarani for more than two hours protesting what they said the government's decision to downgrade the diploma engineers as class-three officials from the previous class-two employee category.

The authorities have shut different polytechnic institutes across the country recently following the students' agitation over the matter.

The government however said it did not take any decision to change the status of diploma engineers.