Identities of several attackers on Prothom Alo, Daily Star identified: Religious Affairs adviser

Identities of several persons involved in setting fire to daily Prothom Alo and The Daily Star have been identified. At the same time, legal steps are being taken to arrest them, Religious Affairs Adviser A F M Khalid Hossain has said.

He said this in response to a question while talking to journalists at the Secretariat on Sunday (21 December).

Two newspapers were set on fire. Mob justice has not stopped yet. When attention was drawn to this, the adviser said we are trying. The matter is that controlling with police in advance at all establishments is a difficult task. Many times we do not know when attack will happen from which side. For this reason, we always discourage this.

He said from intelligence report, I have learnt some photos of those who set fire to Prothom Alo and Daily Star, some of their identities we have already identified. Steps have been taken to arrest them and bring them under law.

Attack happened on Chhayanaut. Some from Shibir said such institutions should not exist. Regarding this, Khalid Hossain said no, what someone says is not in our jurisdiction. But the matter is since we are in government, no one will set fire and burn any government-approved institution or burn and kill people, this is never desirable for us. We consider this unjust and condemnable act. We are determined to bring them under law.

Attacks happened on Prothom Alo, Daily Star, Chhayanaut and various places across the country on the same night. Was there intelligence failure. In response to this question, he said it is intelligence failure. It is not proper for me to say directly like this.

Since you are in the advisory council and discussing these matters. When attention was drawn to this, the religious affairs adviser said this is a matter of home ministry. Besides, it is difficult to know in advance which institution will be attacked together. For example, yesterday a report came to me from intelligence that when Hadi will be buried beside Kazi Nazrul Islam's grave, there is Institute of Fine Arts beside. We informed intelligence immediately, there is report. No kind of accident happened there because we took steps.