Injured Habibur's condition serious
Senior journalist Habibur Rahman Swapan, who was critically injured in an attack by unknown criminals in Pabna town on Saturday night, was shifted to the capital yesterday for better treatment.
The attack on Habibur sparked protest among fellow journalists as well as local s.
Habibur will undergo an emergency orthopaedic surgery on his fractured left hand at Comfort Hospital in Dhaka, doctors said.
Unidentified criminals attacked Habibur, a columnist and staff reporter of Bangla Daily Sangbad, in Pathartola area when he was on his way to home on a rickshaw.
Hearing screams, local people rescued him and rushed him to Pabna General Hospital in a serious condition.
“Three unknown men, wearing helmets, on a motorbike all of a sudden waylaid my rickshaw and started beating me with iron pipes. When I tried to protect myself from their beating with one of my hands they broke my hand,” Habibur, also president of Pabna Reporters Unity, told the journalists at the hospital.
“It is a planned attack to stop my voice,” he said.
“He was shifted to Dhaka as the attackers badly fractured his left hand and he needs an urgent orthopaedic surgery,” said Dr Masudur Rahman Prince, orthopaedic surgeon at Pabna Medical College Hospital.
“Journalist Habibur was always vocal against corruption, injustice, drug abuse and other social and political issues through his write-ups. Criminals might have attacked him in this fashion to stop his brave voice,” said Jakir Hossain, president of Workers Party's Pabna unit.
Protesting the brutal attack and demanding arrest of the attackers, journalists formed a human chain in front of Pabna Press Club yesterday.
“The attack was launched only to stop Habibur's pen and it is a threat to progressive writers and thinkers. Such crimes will continue if criminals are not punished,” Pabna Press Club President Prof Shibojit Nag told the rally.
They will hold a protest meeting at the same venue today [Monday], he said.
No case has been filed in this connection as of filing of this report yesterday.
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