STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Police have so far arrested 17 people and identified 31 suspects in connection with recent attacks involving vandalism, arson, and looting at the offices of national dailies The Daily Star and Prothom Alo.

The arrests were made after analysing video footage of the incidents, and further arrests would follow, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Additional Commissioner SN Nazrul Islam told reporters at the DMP Media Centre yesterday.

In what journalists described as an assault on press freedom, mobs launched coordinated attacks on the offices of The Daily Star and Prothom Alo on Thursday night and vandalised the offices, looted valuables, set the buildings ablaze, and trapped journalists and staff of the English daily inside for hours.

Home Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury yesterday said the editors of both newspapers have been given gunmen for their protection.

“The security at their residences has also been strengthened,” he said while briefing reporters

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