Staff Reporter :
Although the information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu assured journalist leaders on Thursday that the attackers on the journalists would be arrested within Saturday, no progress of his commitment is yet to be seen.
Persons wearing helmets and armed with sticks and machetes, who attacked students and journalists during the road safety demonstration, have not been identified, despite clear video clips and photos.
The law enforcers are reluctant to probe into their identities, alleged leader of a rights group. Human rights activist Sultana Kamal, while talking with reporters, asked, if the students could be arrested for clashing with police, why were the attackers not arrested too?
‘All are equal in the eyes of law’, she added.
Sultana Kamal, also a former caretaker government adviser, said, “The state is behaving in a biased manner, arresting one group but not touching another.”
“If anyone is tortured in custody, then it will be taken that the state is carrying out the torture. We demand the government enforce the law with integrity and credibility,” she added.
The father of one of the arrested students said that he and his wife do not know from where the police have detained their son, an eighth semester student of computer science.
The father, a businessman, said, “We are distressed. The only thing we want is our son to return home before Eid.”
According to Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Media and Public Relations Department, 42 people, including 22 private university students, have so far been arrested on charges of vandalism, arson, attack on police and spreading rumours.
Nine people, including internationally-renowned photographer Shahidul Alam and actress Quazi Nawshaba Ahmed, were arrested under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act.
The law enforcers on Wednesday arrested Yousuf Chowdhury, 40, chief executive officer (CEO) of the online news portal Zoom Bangla and BUET student Daiyan Alam, 22, on charges of spreading rumours.
Since the day of attack, the victimised journalists and students claim the attackers were the leaders and activists of ruling party Awami League-backed student wing and youth front. Photos of some of them are on the social media.
According to BCL leaders, one of the attackers, who attacked journalists at Science Laboratory area, is a Chhatra Dal leader, student wing of Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Police, however, did not clarify any of the claims.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Headquarters Joint Commissioner (crime) Sheikh Nazmul Alam said the police’s Detective Branch is trying to identify the attackers.
