At 10am Sunday, local time, internationally-
A large group led by one Shamim introducing himself to be an official of DGFI stormed Blitz premises and attacked newspaper staff until they found Choudhury. At that point, he said, “they dragged me [and two staff] into the street” where they beat them “in broad daylight…They looted my office and stole my laptop” with “all my important information. As of this writing, the attackers continue to occupy the Blitz office".
Police were impassive and seemed intimidated when the attackers emphasized their party membership and accused him of being an agent of the Israeli Mossad. They later threatened to attack his home should Choudhury go to the police again.
Choudhury was arrested in 2003 by government agents, in cooperation with Islamist forces, because of his advocacy of relations with Israel and religious equality, and his articles exposing the rise of radical Islam in Bangladesh . He was tortured and held for seventeen months and only released after strong pressure by human rights activist Dr. Richard Benkin and US Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL). In 2007, the US Congress passed a Kirk-introduced resolution 409-1 calling on Bangladesh to stop harassing Choudhury and drop capital charges against him after extensive evidence confirmed them to be false, contrary to Bangladeshi law, and as admitted by successive Bangladeshi officials, maintained only to appease Islamists. The Bangladeshi government continues to remain in defiance of that resolution and its provisions.
A case has been lodged with Paltan Model Police Station. Case No. 65, under section 143, 448, 323, 342, 384, 380, 227 and 506. Police has already started searching for the culprits who were involved in this broad day crime.
Athough the case was lodges, there is no action from the police in arresting the culprits. Meanwhile, a number of culprits are continuing to give threat calls to Weekly Blitz editor Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and reminding him of not taking any legal action on Sunday's incident. They are saying, "You should know, Awami League is in power and we can do almost everything, whatever we want."
Since a new government came in power on, members of its students, youth and other wings became active in a number of crimes, including extorting, land and property grabbing, murder, abduction etc. Attack on the office of a newspaper, is the first time, since this government came in power only in January this year. Earlier, during its tenure in 1996-2001, a number of journalists were attacked and murdered by the party cadres of Bangladesh Awami League.
A young journalist named Tipu Sultan was mercilessly tortured and beaten by thugs belonging to Awami League leader Joinal Hazari. Tipu had to be treated for months in local and foreign hospitals for recovery.
