STAFF CORRESPONDENT

The cases filed over the attacks on the offices of the country’s two leading newspapers -- The Daily Star and Prothom Alo -- were yesterday transferred to the Cyber and Special Crime Division of the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Contacted by The Daily Star last evening, Hasan Mohammad Nased Rikabder, deputy commissioner of the division, said his unit has received the documents of the cases, which were initially being investigated by Tejgaon Police Station, and will begin working on them from Sunday.

On the night of December 18, a mob of around 500 people attacked the Prothom Alo office in the capital’s Karwan Bazar. They vandalised and looted it and set it on fire.

Many of the attackers, armed with locally made weapons, sticks, and flammables, later moved towards The Daily Star head office on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue. They forcibly broke the steel gates and glass doors and stormed the building.

They assaulted staff members, vandalised office property, looted valuables, and set at least three floors of the building on fire, trapping around 28 staffers inside.

On December 22, Mizanur Rahman, head of operations of The Daily Star, filed a case with Tejgaon Police Station against 350–400 unidentified people under the Penal Code, the Anti-Terrorism Act, the Special Powers Act, and the Cyber Security Ordinance.

The same day, Maj (retd) Sazzadul Kabir, head of security at Prothom Alo, filed another case with the same police station against 400–500 unidentified people over similar charges.

According to investigators, 37 people were arrested till December 26 in connection with both cases.

Of them, 11 were arrested in The Daily Star’s case, while the remaining 26 were arrested in Prothom Alo’s.

Of the 37, 18 are from Dhaka’s Tejgaon, while 16 are from Dakshinkhan, Keraniganj, South Keraniganj, Shyampur, Badda, Kamrangirchar, Pallabi, Shah Ali, Mirpur, Hazaribagh, and Bangshal. The remaining three are from Shariatpur Sadar, Panchagarh Sadar, and Bhola’s Borhanuddin.

However, there have been no new arrests since then.

Meanwhile, police have sought a seven-day remand to interrogate eight accused in Prothom Alo’s case.

A sub-inspector of Dhaka court, requesting anonymity, said, “The hearing on the remand prayer will be held on January 5.”

Ashik Iqbal, inspector (investigation) of Tejgaon Police Station, who had been handling The Daily Star’s case, said, “Since December 27, we have been busy with large-scale programmes. In the meantime, the decision was made to transfer the cases to the DB.”