‘Implicated’ in drug case in Lalmonirhat
BGB men led by a camp commander allegedly assaulted a reporter in Lalmonirhat Thursday night and accused him of possessing illegal drugs in a case filed with Sadar Police Station.
Jahangir Alam Shahin, who works for Janatkantha and BSS, is being treated at Lalmonirhat Sadar Hospital with injuries that according to him are from the torture at Kulaghat BGB Camp.
He said he went to Kulaghat area, about 7km from the town, with a local named Sohag Islam to report on drug smuggling around 11:30pm.
Contacted, Habildar Anwar Hossain, commander at BGB Kulaghat Special Camp, said a BGB patrol team caught Shahin with a bottle of Phensidyl and he got injured trying to flee the scene, adding that the BGB men had not beaten him up.
Shahin, also a teacher of Mahishkhocha School and College, said he and Sohag were traveling on a motorcycle when the BGB men stopped them near Kulaghat Bailey Bridge.
He told The Daily Star at the hospital that he was talking to the BGB men about drug smuggling in the area when Camp Commander Anowar assaulted him and Sohag.
The BGB men then took both of them to the camp and released Sohag after beating him up.
Shahin said, “Three or four BGB members, including Anwar Hossain, tortured me mercilessly. They hit me with sticks. They kicked me with their boots. I have apologised to them, but they kept swearing at me and torturing me.”
Shahin said he was then taken to Lalmonirhat Sadar Police Station with his hands and waist tied with a rope.
He was handed over to the police with a bottle of phensidyl and a case was filed against him around daybreak yesterday.
Police sent him to the hospital later.
Shahin’s companion Sohag told reporters that he was also beaten up at the BGB camp. He added that Shahin took him along because it was late at night.
Shaha Alam, officer-in-charge of Lalmonirhat Sadar Police Station, said the BGB team handed Shahin’s motorcycle to the police station when they filed the case against him.
The OC added that a court granted Shahin bail in a virtual hearing.
Medical Officer Jewel Rana of Lalmonirhat Sadar Hospital told The Daily Star that journalist Shahin suffered injuries to his eye, face, nose, neck and waist.
Source: The Daily Star