Journalist Labeled ‘Devil’ and Attacked by Mob in Sylhet

A young man named Kawsar, who is known locally as a terrorist and extortionist, has created a mob in Gopalganj, Sylhet and insulted journalist Abdul Ahad by calling him a ‘devil’.

Ahmed Abu Zafar, chairman of the board of trustees of the Bangladesh Mofusal Journalists Forum, strongly condemned the incident and demanded punishment for the accused.

Ahmed Abu Jafar described the incident in a post on his Facebook page on Sunday titled ‘Journalist Ahad, a victim of mob violence’.

He said, Abdul Ahad, who has been a professional journalist for a long time, was insulted by a mob and called a ‘devil’. He was forced to run a long way, and finally survived by crossing a canal. If this is human mistreatment of media workers, then where will journalists be safe?

He further said that Abdul Ahad has been doing journalism for 30 years and has maintained good relations with all political parties. Therefore, calling him a ‘devil’ and insulting him in this way is illogical and sad.

He considers this an example of how those with dissenting views are being harassed in various ways at this time.

Ahmed Abu Zafar further said, “The young man named Kawsar, who created the mob, threatened the police and chased journalist Ahad to different places and made a video of it and spread it on social media. The police also threatened him and took him to an unknown place. Ahad suffered physical and mental harm in this incident.”

He said, “The state has not given anyone the power to take the law into their own hands. It is necessary to quickly confirm Kawsar’s identity and bring him to justice.”

It is learnt that Kausar is known locally as an extortionist and terrorist. Since August 5 last year, he has been physically and mentally torturing various people by calling them Awami League friends or devils. He is forcibly extorting money by threatening mob attacks.