Police and a journalist have filed general diaries against Farhad Mazhar accusing the columnist of inciting attacks on journalists from a TV talk show.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Tejgaon Zone Deputy Commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarkar confirmed bdnews24.com about the GDs filed with Tejgaon Police Station on Wednesday night.
The GDs also accused Jatiya Party leader Kazi Firoz Rashid.
The move came after the television station owners met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday and discussed safety of journalists and also the comment of Mazhar.
DC Biplob said many indirectly blamed Farhad Mazhar for the bomb attacks on media outlets and journalists during the opposition’s strike.
He said they were investigating the GD filed by Tejgaon Police Station’s Sub-Inspector Anwar Hossain.
The other GD was filed by the English daily New Nation’s Special Correspondent Pulack Ghatack, who is also the Executive Committee Member of the Dhaka Union of Journalists.
Pulack said he anticipated more attacks on journalists following remarks made by Mazhar and Rashid and called for bringing these two talk-show participants to law in the complaint.
Farhad Mazhar, however, on Tuesday claimed his statement justifying bomb attacks on media outlets and journalists during the opposition strike was ‘mere rhetoric.’
He accused Ekattor TV of broadcasting a ‘distorted’ and ‘partial’ version of his speech.
In the talk-show aired on Ekushey television last Sunday, Farhad called media ‘criminal’ and observed that the attacks were justified for what they had been doing in the name of journalism. He even observed that there should have been more attacks on media.
A video clip of the talk show went viral on Facebook, causing furore.
The 60-hour countrywide strike from Sunday through Tuesday saw bomb explosions at different media offices in the capital and elsewhere in the country. Four bombs were exploded before the office of Ekattor TV, injuring its senior journalist Zakaria Akond Biplob.
Explosions were also reported at the offices of private television channels Desh TV, Mohona, and newspaper Bhorer Kagoj and internet newspaper bdnews24.com.
Source: Bd news24
