Punish Swapan's attackers

Journalists in the district yesterday brought out a silent procession covering their faces with black clothes seeking exemplary punishment to the attackers of journalist Habibur Rahman Swapan.

They also submitted memorandums to the prime minister and the home minister through the deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police in this regard.

The journalist leaders said it was a planned attack on Swapan to stop independent voice. They said this before starting the procession as part of their three-day agitation demanding punishment to the attackers.

Members of Pabna Press Club led by its President Shibojit Nag and Secretary Akhinur Islam Remon paraded the main streets of the district headquarters to realise their five-point demand, including security of the journalists.

Other demands include punishment to the attackers of Swapan, his better treatment and justice for the journalists who came under attacks in Pabna during the last few years.

“Sometime a few people are arrested but the real attackers remain unpunished. And so, such an attack continues,” said Pabna Sangbadpatra Parishad President Abdul Matin Khan.

Superintendent of Police Md Rafikul Islam, however, said the police investigate such incidents and try to arrest the attackers.

Critically injured Swapan, staff reporter of The Daily Sangbad and president of Pabna Reporters Unity, is now undergoing treatment at Comfort Hospital in the capital. Unidentified criminals attacked him at Pathartola on Saturday when he was returning home on a rickshaw.