Staff Reporter :
The Bangla Daily Amar Desh Acting Editor Mahmudur Rahman sustained serious bloody injuries yesterday as a group of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) allegedly attacked him in the premise of Kushtia district court.
The attack came shortly after he got bail in a case filed over allegations of demeaning Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Tulip Rizwana Siddiq on December 1 last year.
Around 150 BCL men led by its district unit President Yasir Arafat alias Tushar and General Secretary Saa’d Ahmed first confined Mahmudur inside the court for around four hours. He came out of the courthouse at 4:30 pm and tried to get into his car, reports our district correspondent quoting police and witnesses.
They stopped his way and them hurled brick chips targeting him and his car as he tried to leave the place and get on the car after getting police assurance for safety. But police played the role of spectator as he came under attack and was brutally beaten and tortured.
Mahmudur Rahman was hit on the head and face pelting bricks at him. HE was later seen bleeding all over his shirt and cut mark on his face, according to local sources.
The injuries showed several cut marks in head, forehead, neck and chest, witnesses said. The BCL men also carried out the attacks on the chamber of his defense lawyer when he took shelter there. Police later sent him to Jashore hospital for treatment by an ambulance. The attackers also vandalized the lawyer’s room and the car carrying Mahmudur Rahman.
Earlier, Mahmudur Rahman, who was granted bail by Kushtia Senior Judicial Magistrate MM Morshed, was first locked up inside the courtroom and then attacked after he emerged after 3:30pm.
The police officials in the district did not agree to make any comment on the issue. On December 1 last year, Mahmudur allegedly made derogatory comments about Bangabandhu and Hasina while addressing a seminar organised by Bangladesh Democratic Council at the National Press Club in Dhaka.
Following the remark, BCL leader Tushar filed the defamation lawsuit with the Kushtia court on December 10, 2017. Mahmudur Rahman was sued in several districts over his remark, according to case statements.
