Families of the five journalists, killed during the past year鈥檚 July mass uprising, said that justice for the martyrs seemed elusive as there had been no progress in the process even after a year since the uprising.
The five journalists were martyred while carrying out their professional duties during the mass uprising that toppled the authoritarian Awami League regime on August 5, 2024.
Mehedi Hassan, a reporter for the online news outlet Dhaka Times 24.com, had gone to cover news on July 18, 2024, during the job quota-reform protests, which eventually turned into the mass uprising, in the capital鈥檚 Jatrabari, where he was shot in the chest with rubber bullets by police.
He was later taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where he was declared dead.
The four other martyrs are Shakil Hossain, Tahir Zaman Priyo, Abu Taher Md Turab and Sohel Akhanji.
According to the government data, 836 people, including five journalists, were killed during the July uprising.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the progress in the dispensation of justice, Mehedi鈥檚 wife Farhana Islam Popy said, 鈥業 filed two cases. But there鈥檚 been no progress. The way my husband was killed, it shouldn鈥檛 have been hard to find the killer.鈥�
She told 抖阴精品 on Sunday that when Mehedi was martyred, their elder daughter was three and a half years old, and the younger one was just seven months.
Farhana said that her household was now running with the aid received from different government and private organisations.
On the same day, July 18 past year, journalist Shakil was martyred after being shot in the chest in front of Azampur police station at Uttara in the capital Dhaka while performing his professional duty.
The 23-year-old Shakil, who worked for Dainik Bhorer Awaj as a Gazipur鈥檚 Gacha thana correspondent, was also a BBA student at Manarat International University.
His father Md Belayet Hossain said that Shakil was the youngest among one brother and three sisters.
The family filed a case with the International Crimes Tribunal past August, he added.
On August 5, 2024, journalist Sohel, 35, a staff reporter for the local Dainik Lokalay Barta, was killed while covering a protest rally near the Baniachaung police station in Habiganj.
鈥榃e have two daughters 鈥� 10 and 3 years of age, and a son aged 5. Sohel鈥檚 parents were deceased, and he had no siblings,鈥� Sohel鈥檚 wife Mousumi Akhter said, adding that the family currently survived on the aid provided by the government organisations.
Mousumi told 抖阴精品 that they did not file a case due to financial hardship and legal complications, but several cases filed by others had mentioned her husband鈥檚 killing in their cases.
Bangladesh Journalists Welfare Trust managing director Mohammad Abdullah told 抖阴精品 that the government had already provided the families of the five martyred journalists each with Tk 10 lakh in savings bonds and Tk 5 lakh in financial assistance from the July Shaheed Smrity Foundation (July Martyrs Memorial Foundation).
The welfare trust, under the information and broadcasting ministry, has so far listed 192 July injured journalists after verification.
Abdullah told 抖阴精品 that another journalist named Pradip Kumar Bhowmik, Sirajganj鈥檚 Raiganj correspondent for the daily Khoborpatra, was killed on August 4 during the 2024 uprising, but the government did not include him in the martyred list as he was allegedly against the uprising.
On July 19 past year, freelance photojournalist Tahir, who hailed from Rangpur, was working on assignment in Green Road area in the capital Dhaka when a bullet fired by police struck him in the head.
The body of the 27-year-old photojournalist was later found at the DMCH morgue that night.
The family filed two cases with the New Market police station and the International Crimes Tribunal, his mother, Shamsi Ara Zaman, told 抖阴精品.
鈥楾ahir鈥檚 five-year-old daughter is traumatised by her father鈥檚 demise,鈥� she said, adding that she wanted to see her son鈥檚 killers punished before this government鈥檚 term ended.
On the same day, journalist Abu Taher, the bureau chief of Dainik Naya Diganta in Sylhet, was martyred while covering a protest rally organised by local leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in support of the uprising in Sylhet city.
Turab鈥檚 elder brother Abul Ahasan Md Jabur said that initially police had filed only a general diary when the family tried to lodge a case on July 24 past year.聽 Later, the family filed a case on August 19.
