11 eminent personalities condemn assault on Rozina Islam, demand withdrawal of case

Eleven eminent personalities have condemned the assault on Prothom Alo Senior Correspondent Rozina Islam by government officials at the Secretariat when she was collecting information from the health ministry.

In a statement, they also condemned the case filed against her over "stealing classified information".

They mentioned that the government and public are jointly working to tackle the Covid-19 situation at present.

The health ministry and health workers are playing a significant role in this regard, they said in the statement.

But at the same time, the government was embarrassed following irregularities by some officials and employees of the ministry at different times and also took action against them, they said. 

In those cases, the government was benefitted due to investigative reports by journalists like Rozina Islam.

"In this situation, we demand the government enquire the reason behind the incident and also identify those who assaulted Rozina Islam, and conduct an investigation on their activities."

"We hope that the government will be considerate to withdraw the case filed against Rozina Islam and release her from jail."

Cultural personality and freedom fighter Nasiruddin Yousuff, journalist and political analyst Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, writer and historian Prof Muntassir Mamoon, writer-journalist Shahriar Kabir, media personality Ramendu Majumdar, Hasan Azizul Haque, Anupom Sen, Sarwar Ali, Mofidul Haque, Mamunur Rashid and Abdus Salim signed the statement issued today.