Bangladesh was rocked by a fresh spate of violence on Thursday night as mobs torched the offices of Prothom Alo and The Daily Star in Dhaka, trapping journalists and forcing an emergency rescue, following protests over the death of youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi. Hundreds of Hadi’s supporters gathered at a central square in the capital before marching towards the offices of the two newspapers. The protest quickly turned violent, with demonstrators vandalising property and setting buildings ablaze.
The attack began at the office of the Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo. Witnesses said protesters arrived around 11 pm, chanting slogans before surrounding the building and setting it on fire close to midnight. According to reports, several hundred demonstrators reached the Prothom Alo office around 11 pm and later surrounded the building.
The mob later moved on to target The Daily Star after vandalising the first newspaper’s premises. Staff at The Daily Star were alerted moments before the attack. A journalist told bdnews24 that a phone call from outside warned them a crowd was approaching. Newsroom employees attempted to evacuate the building, but by then the mob had already begun smashing the ground and first floors before setting the office on fire.
Panic spread inside the smoke-filled building as journalists struggled to escape. “I can’t breathe anymore,” The Daily Star reporter Zyma Islam wrote in a Facebook post. “There’s too much smoke. I’m inside. You are killing me,” she added.
With flames spreading, night-shift staff reportedly fled to the terrace to save their lives. According to bdnews24, at least 25 journalists were rescued nearly four hours after the attack on the newspaper’s office in Dhaka’s Kawran Bazar area.
Firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control around 2 am, but the evacuation of journalists took several more hours as protesters continued to charge towards the building, delaying rescue efforts.
“All The Daily Star staff have just been successfully evacuated to a safe place, thanks to the Bangladesh Army and the Fire Service,” staff member Mahmud Hasan wrote on social media. “Special thanks to an army major whose valour today matched that of ‘Major Rana’,” he added, referring to the iconic fictional hero from Kazi Anwar Hossain’s Masud Rana series. Following the evacuation, the Army was deployed outside The Daily Star building to prevent further violence, bdnews24 reported.
The unrest also turned personal, with Editors’ Council president and New Age editor Nurul Kabir reportedly assaulted by the mob. Videos circulating on social media showed protesters pulling his hair and beating him during the chaos.
