A group of individuals associated with the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, assaulted five journalists from various television channels late on Monday into the early hours of Tuesday for allegedly calling the late party leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee a war criminal.
The incident unfolded in front of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in Dhaka’s Shahbagh area.
Among the injured, reporter Sheikh Farid and RTV cameraman Ayatullah Manik were targeted. Additionally, Jamuna TV reporter Shawkat Manju Shanto, along with Mahfuzur Rahman Mithu and cameraman Bishonath Sarker, also faced attacks from the crowd gathered around BSMMU, where Sayedee had breathed his last.
At around 11:30pm on Monday, as RTV reporters reached the venue and got out of the vehicle, a group of unruly people swopped on them, shouting: “How dare you call our leader a war criminal, Sayedee is our leader, Sayeddee is the protector of Islam.”
During the attack, the attackers snatched various pieces of equipment, including one camera, backpack and wallet.
On the other hand, around 11pm, as Shokat Manju Shanto, a reporter for Jamuna TV, went live from the hospital where he addressed Sayeedee as a convicted war criminal, these activists encircled him and started assaulting him.
Wearing helmets and vests inscribed Jamuna TV, Mahfuzur Rahman Mithu, another photojournalist, who went inside the hospital to take photos, also came under attack.
All the injured received treatment at hospitals, as some of them sustained serious injuries, according to the management of the outlets.
Sayedee, a former Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker from Pirojpur, was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal 1 in February 2013 as he was found to be involved in killings in Pirojpur during the war and held the position of Jamaat nayeb-e-ameer.
Meanwhile, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Khandker Golam Faruq on Tuesday claimed that the Jamaat-Shibir men assaulted some police personnel and vandalized vehicles in Dhaka’s Shahbagh area after the death of Delawar Hossain Sayedee.
They also set fire to two motorcycles in front of BSMMU, the commissioner said at a press briefing at DMP’s Media Centre at around 11am.
Sayedee, 83, passed away on Monday night while undergoing treatment at BSMMU. He died at the hospital at 8:40pm.
On Feb 8, 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal 1 sentenced Sayedee to death for war crimes committed in the 1971 Liberation War. Clashes erupted between police and Jamaat supporters, leaving at least 35 people dead while scores were injured in protest following the death sentence.
The Supreme Court on Sept 17, 2014, reduced the punishment from the death sentence to life imprisonment following a petition by Sayedee.
Apart from the murders, the tribunal had also found Sayedee, who earned the nickname “Delu Razakar,” guilty of abduction, torture, rape, persecution, and abetment to torture, looting, forceful religious conversions, and setting homes ablaze in rural areas of Pirojpur during the Liberation War.
All major news outlets covered stories about Sayeede’s war crimes during the war crimes trial. However, both Jamaat and BNP expressed condolences at his death and referred to him as an “Islamic scholar.”
Sayedee’s party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, is an organization of war criminals, mass murderers, and individuals who committed crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. Their actions aimed to assist the Pakistan occupational forces in preventing the birth of Bangladesh in 1971.
In the run-up to the 2013 national polls, and reportedly in an attempt to disrupt war crimes trials, Jamaat gained notoriety for orchestrating a series of violent anti-state activities both before and after the national election in 2014.
In 2013, propagating a rumour that the image of Sayedee had been sighted on the moon, Jamaat Shibir members launched attacks on minorities across the country, allegedly in a bid to obstruct the trial.
