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3 journalists injured in attacks

STAFF CORRESPONDENT, Rajshahi
Three journalists were injured in separate attacks in Kushtia, Jhenidah and Rajshahi since last Monday.
A gang of armed men stormed Metropolitan Press Club (MPC) in Rajshahi and wounded Ziaul Haque
Zia, senior staff reporter of local Bengali daily Natun Probhat, during Pahela Baishakh celebrations on Thursday evening.
Zia, also sports and cultural affairs secretary of the MPC, was rushed to Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH) as he was
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bleeding copiously from wounds in the face and mouth.
Local gangsters Manik, Polash, Subrata, and two others brandishing firearms and knives burst onto the press club at about 7:10pm.They shoved Zia down the ground and beat him hard right before some local dignitaries. They however failed to kidnap him as senior journalists present at the scene, some 30 yards off Boalia Police Station, intervened.
"One of them (attackers) beat him with a belt while hurling abuses and shouting that they would teach him a lesson. They also tried to drag him out of the press club," said MPC Vice President Quazi Gyas.
Minutes earlier, Zia had an altercation with two locals at around 7:00pm after the two had breached a fence around the podium built on the MPC premises for holding discussion and cultural functions to celebrate pahela baishakh (Bengali new year).
"They later came back in a gang of some five and stormed the club," said MPC office assistant Nurul Islam Mukul adding that no police were stationed at the venue though the authorities had informed them of the function.
A case was filed accusing Manik, Polash and Subrata alias Chhotu and several others, but none was arrested aslate as evening.
Former Rajshahi University vice chancellors Prof Abdul Khaleque and Prof Saidur Rahman Khan, Rajshahi Bar Association General Secretary Hamidul Haque, former Bar leader Md Yahia, who were at the scene, condemned the attack and demanded exemplary punishment.
MPC at an emergency meeting yesterday described the incident as 'an attack on the journalist community', and decided to stage demonstrations today. They criticised the police for not nabbing the culprits.
"We have taken the incident seriously," Assistant Commissioner of
Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Sabbir Hossain told the journalists who went to the Boalia PS demanding an immediate police action.
Our correspondent from Kushtia adds: Members of 'Lalchad Bahini' shot Safiul Alam Hanif, Daulatpur correspondent of local daily Ajker Sutropat, on Tuesday night. Two passers-by were also injured in the shooting.
Hanif had long been receiving threats for writing against the gang, which has a close link with an outlawed party.
He was undergoing treatment at RMCH and was reported to be in a critical condition, said family sources. Local journalists have demanded immediate arrest of the criminals.
Lalchad, the gang leader, stands accused in no more than 20 different cases. But police could not yet arrest him.
As many as 15 journalists were killedinlast nine yearsin the region.
Different journalists' bodies including Rajshahi Press Club, City Press Club, Jatiya Sangbadik Shangstha, Rajshahi Union of Journalists have condemned the attack on Zia and demanded immediate arrest of the perpetrators.
JHENIDAH
A band of outlawed party operatives swooped on Mashiur Rahman Uzzal, local correspondent of Dhakabased national daily Amar Desh, while he was returning home on Monday nightin Kotchandpur, said police.
Condition of Uzzal, now undergoing treatment at Jessore Hospital, was stated to be critical.
Kotchandpur Press Club President Sheikh Nurul Islam and other members of the club condemned the attack and demanded immediate arrest of the criminals.
A case has been filed with the Kotchandpur Police Station.