Three Bangladeshi journalists and another person attempting to flee the country and cross the Indian border have been taken into custody, police said on Monday.
Prominent journalists Mozammel Babu, the chief editor of the private Ekattor TV, and Bhorer Kagoj editor Shyamol Dutta, who were among the four detained while attempting to flee in a car early on Monday, were considered close to ousted premier Sheikh Hasina's regime.
“Several cases” have been lodged against them in Dhaka.
Others taken into custody while allegedly attempting to escape through the northern Mymensingh border with India included Ekkator TV reporter Mahbabur Rahman and driver Selim, the police said.
The four were reportedly detained by locals near the zero line of the Dhobaura border of Mymensingh district at 6 am and handed over to Mymensingh police, officials added.
Private Samoy TV channel reported that the locals first assaulted Babu and Dutta, both prominent personalities and then looted cash from them before calling the police.
“They are now in our custody and their safety has been ensured during their stay in the police station. We have enhanced the security vigil,” a police officer said, according to PTI.
The official said the Mymensingh police were waiting to hand over the four detained men to the officials concerned, who would then take them to Dhaka for required legal procedures.
The police in Dhaka on August 21 arrested another journalist couple Farzana Rupa and Shakil Ahmed as they were getting ready to board a France-bound aircraft.
The couple has been charged with murder during the anti-reservation students’ movement which eventually turned out to be a mass upheaval leading to the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government on August 5.
Identical murder charges have been lodged against several other journalists, drawing concern from international journalist rights groups and watchdogs.
The interim government of Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus indicated they were unlikely to be arrested until thorough investigations into the allegations against them were completed.
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