Star photo journo beaten for protesting reckless driving

An SUV driver beat up a photojournalist of The Daily Star in Dhaka yesterday as he protested when the vehicle rammed into a rickshaw-van and the driver started beating up the injured van puller.

The journalist along with his friend was heading towards his office by a rickshaw through Dhanmondi-10/A, when the black SUV hit the rickshaw-van, he said.

"I was pushed down on the road and the car owner, who was in a suit, started kicking and punching me. Soon a tall young man and a boy, who could be seven to eight years old, joined the man in the beating," he added. Within seconds, a mob joined them. The indiscriminate punches and beating stopped only when the journalist managed to bring out his ID card. Seeing the card, a woman who was in the SUV, got down and pulled them away.

The journalist, however, managed to take pictures of the vehicle and its registration plate. He filed a general diary with Dhanmondi Police Station later.