STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Government patronage is fuelling organised mobs in the country, said speakers at a dialogue yesterday.

At a dialogue organised by the Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) styled “Media Reform in Bangladesh: Between Freedom, Responsibility and Power”, Editors’ Council President Nurul Kabir described the attacks on the offices of The Daily Star and Prothom Alo in the capital’s Kawran Bazar as cases in point.

The government either allowed the attacks on December 18 last year or failed to prevent them, he said.

“That was not spontaneous -- that was organised,” he said, adding that the inability of fire services to reach the scene reflected a grave breakdown of state responsibility.

Earlier this month, in an interview with Al Jazeera Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam dismissed Kabir’s assertion that the entire government or a part of the government let the attacks happen, saying the allegation lacked evidence. Kabir, however, rejected Alam’s statement.

Citing Alam’s post on his Facebook page the day after the twin attacks in which he said he had made scores

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