Cop, friend go berserk

A bike-riding police official along with his friend allegedly beat up two on-duty journalists at a checkpoint in the capital's Shahbag around Thursday midnight.

The assailants are Mashiur Rahman, assistant superintendent of police (probation) of Savar Model Police Station, and his friend Atiqul Basher, a former student of Dhaka University.

The two were drunk when the incident took place, said police.

Talking to The Daily Star, OC Abu Bakar Siddique of Shahbagh Police Station said police signalled at the bikers to pull over at the checkpoint.

Incensed, Mashiur and Basher, who was driving the bike, locked into an altercation with the cops. At one stage, they pounced on Nure Alam, a senior reporter of Asian Television, and cameraman Didar Hossain.

The attackers also swooped on some policemen when they tried to pacify the duo.

Nure Alam said police stopped the motorcycle which had a sticker stating “press”.  “The bikers wanted to know our identities as we were filming the scene. As they came to know that we were journalists, they got down from the bike and hurled abuse at us. All of a sudden, they started beating us.”

Police later took the assaulters to Shahbagh Police Station. The two were freed after they gave undertakings to law enforcers.  

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque told reporters at the Combined Military Hospital that they would take departmental action against the cop after probing the incident.

Mashiur, a police cadre of 33rd BCS batch, joined Savar Police Station as a probationary officer after completing his training recently.

This correspondent could not reach Mashiur over the phone for his comment.

The authorities of Asian Television filed a general diary with Shahbag Police Station yesterday in this connection.