Md. Abdullah, Jaintapur (Sylhet) correspondent //

Amir Ali, president of Sarighat Barki Boat Workers’ Organization, has threatened to cut off the hand of a journalist in Jaintapur for broadcasting news of illegal sand extraction and extortion from sand workers.

He made this threat to Nazmul Islam, the Jaintapur Upazila correspondent of the national daily Ittefaq and Sylhet’s local daily Ekattor Katha, via mobile phone at around 9:30 pm on Saturday (December 28).

In this incident, journalist Nazmul Islam has filed a general diary at Jaintapur Model Police Station seeking protection for his life. Its diary number is -1156.

A four-minute and six-second audio of a phone conversation between journalist Nazmul Islam and labor leader Amir Ali has been preserved in this regard.

In the audio, labor leader Amir Ali tells journalist Nazmul, “You are kicking thousands of workers in the stomach.” In response, Nazmul asks, “Do you have any proof that I am kicking workers in the stomach?” In response, Amir Ali says, “You should report the news of sand mining to the UNO office, I will get all the news.” Immediately after, Amir Ali gets excited and says, “Don’t exaggerate. If you exaggerate, I will chop off your hand.” Then, the journalist starts abusing Nazmul’s parents and uses foul language. When I called labor leader Amir Ali about this, he said that Nazmul first abused him, so he threatened to chop off his hand. When asked about the phone conversation, he could not give any other good answer. He only said that he spoke to the general secretary of the Sarighat Sand Traders Association for a while. Later, Masuk Ahmed, the general secretary of the Sand Traders Association, said that the matter is sad. We are trying to resolve this.

In this regard, Jaintapur Model Police Station Officer-in-Charge Abul Basar Mohammad Badruzzaman said, we have heard the entire audio of the phone conversation, including the threat to chop off journalist Nazmul’s hand. He has already confirmed that Nazmul has filed a general diary. He said that when he called the workers’ president Amir Ali, he first spoke in self-defense. Later, when asked about the audio, he hung up the phone. He said that action will be taken after an investigation into the incident.

Meanwhile, journalists, print and electronic media workers of Jaintapur Upazila have strongly condemned the threat to journalist Nazmul Islam. They have called on the police to immediately arrest the person who made the threat and find the instigators behind it.

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