Countrywide protests continue

Journalists and socio-cultural activists in Chittagong and Rajshahi yesterday protested and condemned Saturday's police assault on three Prothom Alo photojournalists, demanding exemplary punishments of those responsible.
Policemen, led by Shahidul Islam, assistant commissioner of Tejgaon division, swooped on the photojournalists while they were taking shots of a demonstration staged by the students of Dhaka Women Polytechnic Institute around 1:00pm.
Our Chittagong correspondent reports: In a joint statement, Chittagong University Journalists' Association President Sujan Ghosh and General Secretary Abdullah AL Mamun termed the assault “disgraceful”.
Such incidents are against human rights and the rule of law and a threat to the administration and the state. Repetition of such incidents would not be tolerated in the future, read the statement.
Our RU correspondent reports: Some 100 journalists working in Rajshahi and socio-cultural activists under the banner, “Bangladesh Photojournalists' Association of Rajshahi”, formed a human chain at Rajshahi city's Shaheb Bazar Zero Point intersection at around 12:00noon.
Speakers at the programme demanded immediate legal action against those responsible after filing of a case and compensation for the assaulted photojournalists -- Khaled Sarkar, Sajid Hossain and Zahidul Karim.
Rajshahi University Journalists' Association also condemned the incident and demanded exemplary punishment of the attackers.