In the aftermath of publishing a report about the Press Secretary of the Chief Advisor, Shafiqul Islam, two more journalists from the daily Kaler Kantho have lost their jobs.
Reliable sources reveal that on Thursday night, several coordinators from an anti-discrimination student movement entered the offices of Kaler Kantho. Initially targeting the Executive Editor, Haider Ali, they compelled him to sign papers effectively terminating his role. Following this, the Chief Reporter, Mehedi Hasan, was also forced to resign.
The controversy escalated on February 1, the first day of the book fair, when Shafiqul publicly disrespected an image of Sheikh Hasina by placing it on a dustbin, subsequently sharing this act on Facebook with highly offensive comments, sparking widespread criticism.
On February 2, Kaler Kantho published a statement from the Liberation War Platform, reported by Sajib Ghosh, which called for punitive actions against Press Secretary Shafiqul. This led to threats against Ghosh on Facebook by Hasnat Abdullah, resulting in Ghosh’s dismissal from the newspaper.
On the same day, both the Executive Editor and the Chief Reporter were ousted from their positions by the aggressive actions of the anti-discrimination group, marking a significant blow to press freedom.