Staff Correspondent

Journalists working in different media outlets formed a human chain in the port city on Tuesday, protesting the attacks on media houses of East West Media Group Limited (EWMGL) in the capital a day earlier.

The human chain was formed in front of Karnaphuli Tower at SS Khaled Road around 2:30pm.

A good number of journalists from different houses participated in the human chain.

Kaler Kantho Chattogram Bureau Chief Mustafa Nayeem, Banglanews24.com Deputy Editor Tapan Chakraborty, Daily Sun Bureau Chief Nur Uddin Alamgir, News24 Bureau Chief Sheikh Golamunnabi Jayed, Bangladesh Pratidin Acting Bureau Chief Muhammad Salim, Ajker Patrika Senior Reporter Abu Bakar Siddique and The Business Standard Senior Reporter Omar Faruk spoke at the protest programme, among others.

The Daily Star Bureau Chief Nazrul Islam Shimul, Deepta TV Bureau Chief Latifa Ansari Luna and daily Kalbela Bureau Chief Saidul Islam also expressed solidarity with the human chain.

The speakers at the protest programme said that miscreants attacked the country’s leading media house with an ill-motive to misdirect the goals of the student-led mass upsurge that ousted the autocratic Awami League government on 5 August.

Strongly condemning the attack on media, they said students were not involved in the unexpected and unacceptable incident.

The miscreants should be identified and punished accordingly by scrutinising the CCTV footages, they remarked.

The protesters also demanded ensuring of safety of all the journalists and media houses in the country.

Mentionable, miscreants carried out an attack on the EWMGL Complex in Bashundhara Residential Area of the capital on Monday afternoon, ransacking the offices of Radio Capital and the Kaler Kantho.

They also vandalised at least 20 vehicles parked on the complex premises, creating a frightening situation and leaving the journalists and employees panic-stricken.

A female journalist was assaulted during the mayhem.

The criminals chanted different slogans against the deposed Awami League government to make it appear that the quota reform movement activists carried out the attack.

However, the students of North South University and other educational institutions rushed to the EWMGL Complex after hearing about the attack, making it clear that the students had no link with the attack.

They demanded that the attackers be arrested immediately.

EWMGL, the country’s leading media conglomerate, houses English newspaper Daily Sun, two Bangla dailies – Bangladesh Pratidin and Kaler Kantho, online news portal Banglanews24.com, two television channels – News24 and T Sports, and radio station Radio Capital FM 94.8.