Many journalists faced attacks and assaults by the ruling Awami League activists in the capital and other places while covering and exposing ballot stuffing and other irregularities during the 12th Jatiya Sangsad election on Sunday.

Journalists said that they were barred from taking pictures and footage of ballot stuffing and irregularities, mostly in the late hours of voting.

Several journalists of New Age faced threats, harassment, and verbal abuse from the Awami League activists at different polling centres in the capital while covering ballot stuffing.

Awami League activists threatened New Age correspondent Muktadir Rashid and photojournalist Sourav Laskar and asked them to leave as they visited Rajdhani High School centres at Manik Mia Avenue in the Dhaka-12 constituency in the afternoon.

‘At about 3:00pm, a group of supporters of the ruling party entered the polling centre and asked us to leave immediately,’ said Muktadir.

At one stage, a platoon of Border Guard Bangladesh reached the centre and asked the gathering to leave the place.

Later, at about 3:45pm, some of the youths, who introduced themselves as ‘volunteers,’ asked the journalists again to leave the centre immediately. The journalists, however, managed to stay until voting ended.

Two other New Age reporters, Nasir Uz Zaman and Tanzil Rahaman, were surrounded by some miscreants while reporting vote rigging at Khodeza Khatun Government Primary School, Centre-1 in the Dhaka-8 constituency.

Some youths were seen in the voting line repeatedly. Asked about their identities, some of them fled the scene, and a duty Ansar caught one with indelible ink on his thumb and a voter’s slip.

At that time, some youths wearing the badge of the Awami League’s electoral symbol boat surrounded reporters and threatened them, said Nasir.

Three journalists of the Daily Star were confined and threatened by the Awami League activists at a centre in Segunbagicha in the afternoon as they found some ruling party activists stuffing ballot boxes.

The Daily Star staff reporters Arafat Rahaman, Dipan Nandy, and Dhaka University correspondent Sirajul Islam Rubel were later rescued by police.

Rubel said that they had a tip-off about ballot stuffing at polling centres at Segunbagicha High School and went there to inquire about it around

2:00pm.

In the presence of journalists, two activists of the ruling party were barred by polling officials from voting since they were suspected of being fake voters. One of them was also handed over to the police.

The Awami League activists gathered inside the polling station, blamed the Daily Star journalists for the incident, and confined them there, said Rubel.

The activists verbally abused journalists and threatened them. Later, they were rescued by police, added Rubel.

Private broadcaster Jamuna Television journalist Mohiuddin Modhu was injured in an attack in Dhaka’s Nawabganj while covering vote rigging in the afternoon.

Mohiuddin said that he noticed a teen was trying to cast a ballot at the Dighirpar Government Primary School centre. The journalist tried to talk to him, but he fled, noticing the media presence there.

Later, supporters of the ruling Awami League chased and attacked the journalist. He was injured when brickbats were hurled at him by activists.

In Lalmonirhat, three journalists were attacked at the Pubrba Sardubi Primary School centre as they went there to report the confinement of independent candidate Ataur Rahman by Awami League supporters.

The journalists’ cameras were vandalised, too.

A journalist of daily Prothom Alo, Mosarraf Shah, was attacked by the activists of the ruling party as he went to Nasirabad Government Boys’ High School in Chattogram to report on vote rigging by Awami League activists.

The activists attacked the journalist, snatched away his cellphone, and removed pictures and videos captured of the rigging.

The secretary general-elect of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists faction, Kader Gani Chowdhury, told New Age that they had noticed that journalists faced assaults, attacks, threats, and harassment in different districts while covering the election and trying to expose irregularities.

‘We are collecting information on those incidents and will come up with details,’ said Kader Gani.

He blamed the ruling Awami League activists for the attacks.

The police headquarters officials did not respond to phone calls for their comments about the assaults on journalists.