Snatching of militants: Injured cop hospitalised with eye injury

A policeman, who suffered eye injuries today when criminals snatched two death row inmates from a Dhaka court, was taken to the National Institute of Ophthalmology (NIO), sources at Dhaka Metropolitan Police said this afternoon.

"A 39-year-old policeman Noor-e- Azad has been referred from the Central Police Hospital to the National Institute of Ophthalmology. He is currently undergoing treatment there," the sources said.

Speaking at The Daily Star at the NIO, Noor-e-Azad said unidentified people sprayed some chemical into his eyes and hit his face while he was on duty in front of the Chief Judicial Magistrate court gate this noon.

Police sources said unidentified people on "two motorcycles" attacked the policeman at the court when he was bringing out the convicts -- Moinul Hasan Shamim alias Samir alias Imran and Abu Siddiq Sohel.

The two escaped convicts were among eight members of the outlawed Ansar al Islam group sentenced last year for the 2015 killing of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan.

A doctor of the emergency unit of the hospital said the policeman was admitted with swollen eyes but what caused the swelling couldn't be determined without more tests.