Police beat up two journalists who were on their way back from a hospital after donating blood to a cancer patient.

The incident took place at Rupnagar residential area around 3pm on Tuesday.

The injured journalists are – Shawkat Haider, editor of enews71.com and Md Jihad, special correspondent of the same news portal.

Injured Shawkat said he and his colleague Jihad were walking home after giving blood to a cancer patient at Shurakkha General Hospital in Rupnagar.

“When we reached near Lazz Pharma, police suddenly started hitting Jihad saying ‘why are you outside,’” he added.

He was a little behind Jihad and started recording the incident. Then policemen noticed him and started beating him too, he said.

The journalist also said: “The police did not stop hitting us even after repeatedly giving our identity as journalists.”

Instead, 10-15 more policemen joined in the beating.

Replying to a question he said: “The police didn’t even ask us where we had gone. We told them, we are coming from a hospital after giving blood, but the police did not listen to us.”

“Mukammel Hossain, inspector (operations) of Rupnagar Police Station was present on the spot. He also came and hit us with sticks several times,” said journalist Shawkat.

He also said that police took his mobile phone and deleted the video during the assault. He was carrying Tk5,000, which was also lost during the incident.

Following the incident, the two journalists, suffering serious injuries to their hands and feet, received first aid at Islami Bank Hospital in Mirpur.

Rupnagar police station Inspector (operation) Mukammel Hossain, who was present at the scene, said: “They may have gotten injured by falling down when we were trying to disperse a crowd and send people home. I am not aware of beating any journalist.”

However, Rupnagar Police Station OC Abul Kalam said: “It was just an unexpected incident. I’ve personally talked to the journalists. They came home from the hospital.

“I will settle the matter when the situation becomes normal. This kind of incident is in no way desirable,” he added.