Bangladeshi newspapers attacked by mob

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1:08Soutik Biswas:This is The Fifth Floor, at the heart of global storytelling with BBC journalists from all around the world. I'm your host, Irena Taranyuk.

1:28Soutik Biswas:In December, the offices of two of Bangladesh's biggest newspapers, The Daily Star and Protom Allo, were surrounded by mobs, attacked and set on fire. At The Daily Star, journalists were forced to take shelter on the roof of the building. They were eventually rescued by the army, and many required hospital treatment. Protomalu is a Bengali-language sister paper of the Daily Star. It was also attacked at the same time. The BBC's Shotik Biswas went to Dhaka to investigate the causes of this violence, and he is with me now. Shotik, welcome to the fifth floor, and thank you for finding time for us.

2:09Thank you.

2:09Soutik Biswas:First of all, what were the signs of trouble in Dhaka on the 18th of December? This attack has a very curious genesis because, you know, that day, Sharif Osman Hadi, who was a young, prominent youth leader, had died in a Singapore hospital after being shot by masked attackers outside of Dhaka Mosque the previous week. Now, Hadi was an upcoming young youth leader. He was not a politician. He had started a cultural organization. He was a nationalist. And a lot of his speeches and his rhetoric had a lot of anti-India sentiment. Now, anti-India sentiments are not uncommon in Bangladesh. It has had a love and hate relationship with India.

2:57So that's not uncommon. And the Daily Star and the Prutthumalo had come under attack from a lot of people, include Hadi's organization, of being agents of India. Now, that's also not very uncommon in Bangladesh, where people are identified as pro-India or anti-India. But anyway, so these papers are branded as Indian agents accused of downplaying Hadi's assassination. And mind you, it was a huge, huge story. Almost the entire nation was in mourning because of the murder of this leader. So it does seem that the mob which came and attacked these two newspapers attacked it because they believed that they were anti-Indian papers.

3:43But it's still not clear whether the people belonging to Hadi's organizations were behind the attack. That's absolutely unclear. So we really don't know that who did this and why did they do it? We don't know because there's been no clarity on what the motive of this attack might have been. We know that on Facebook, and I've heard this from a lot of people, that there were a bunch of Facebookers, Bangladeshis, who were not in the country, apparently ordering in quotes. Who were these people? Why were they orchestrating these attacks online? That's absolutely unclear. There's been no clarity on what the motive of this attack might have been.

4:30Soutik Biswas:You already mentioned that there was a lot of anti-India sentiment and those two newspapers were accused of being pro-Indian in their tone. But these two newspapers are really big in Bangladesh. You liken them to the French Le Monde or the New York Times or the Times. Was there any proof given that the newspapers were biased in any way? Or was it just sort of totally invented? I think a bit of it was invented, but I have never found bias. I mean, the Daily Star is a pretty kind of, I would imagine, a neutral newspaper in a very, very oppressive news environment in Bangladesh. And Pothumalo is a really, really good newspaper.

5:19It's almost like the Lamont of Bangladesh. It's like the leading Bengali newspaper. It's about 28 years old. And the Daily Star is about 34 years old. And both are very reputable, serious newspapers. They're not tabloids or screechy kind of media. They're very complete.

5:38Soutik Biswas:Let's go back to that night of the 18th of December. The newspaper journalist Zima Islam. She's young, isn't she? Yeah, she's a 30-something investigative reporter. She's finishing her article late about Sharif Osman Hadi, about his funeral and the whole case of his tragic death after shooting. She does her job of a journalist. She files the story away. Can you tell us what happened to her and her colleagues that evening? So it must have been close to midnight when he finished the story. And the very interesting fact is that she said they knew that the building was going to come under attack because a lot of stuff was coming out on Facebook, which was basically a lot of people posting things that a mob is on the way to attack these newspapers and so on.

6:35So there had been threats. Remember, Facebook is hugely popular in Bangladesh in ways it is not in most countries around the world. It's still a go to place for news. I think in a country of 170 million, about 50 million people are on Facebook. So so she said that they knew that there was a mob of protesters moving towards these two papers. But they thought that it would be just some protests and some demonstrations happening outside the office. And it had happened in the run up to this attack. So she said, my first job was to make sure that I finished my story. So she stayed on and there were about 27 colleagues of hers.

7:13And this is an amazing thing. As they're looking at their Facebook phones and saying that there is a crowd or a mob moving towards the office, she actually sits down, finishes a story, hits submit. And then she heads downstairs with her colleagues. When they went down, they realized things are very bad. Shwatiq, I was thinking, what would I do if a mob surrounded my building?

7:35Soutik Biswas:Would I finish the story or would I try to save myself? And as yet, I don't know the answers. Tell me, journalists knew that the mob is after them. They knew they were innocent in doing their job and presenting the balanced view of the story, of the major story for Bangladesh. Where was the security? Where was the police? Yeah, now that's a very good question, because if you think that the mob had collected over like one hour and where were the security? Now, remember, this is happening in December when Bangladesh was being ruled by an interim government. There had been a lot of mob attacks during that time.

8:10And one reason was that the police and the security forces were completely demoralized after the July 24 uprising, when Sheikh Hasina had to free the country and a 15-year-old government collapsed. Now, she's accused, her party, and she's accused of killing 1 ,400 people, according to the student protests broke out. And a lot of these shootings, the police were allegedly responsible. So you can imagine the police is demoralized, the security forces are demoralized. And I would think that is one of the reasons why they couldn't do much. It tells you about the failure of the state and a complete, complete collapse of law and order, which was happening in Bangladesh, that allowed this mob to go in.

8:52And then they vandalized and set fire to the building. So it was not a simple protest.

8:57Soutik Biswas:How did the journalists eventually escape? so as Zyma told me the story uh five past midnight she's files the story and then they said let's go down a bunch of journalists had already made their way out of the building it's a I think an eight story building with a roof on the ninth floor but 28 of them were trapped inside including two women one of them was Zyma and when they went down they actually saw uh you know they heard the sound of brick smashing glass at the reception from outside and people were trying to come in at which point they realized that it was very very unsafe to try to go out through the reception because there was a huge mob outside waiting outside they had come into the office and at that point all of them decided to just climb up nine floors and go off up to the roof because they thought if the building was set on fire they would still have a chance if they went to the roof, which I thought was a very brave and intelligent part of the moment decision that they didn't lock themselves into any of the floors, really.

10:00I think the newsroom was in the seventh floor. They had gone down to the first floor and they climbed all the way back to the ninth floor, by which times I must say is that the smoke was already kind of funneling up the elevator shaft. So it was a very dramatic, precarious four and a half hours on the roof in the darkness with with smoke coming up and they were getting messages from their colleagues downstairs who had kind of melted into that crowd and they were sending messages that they're planning murders they could drop a bomb you know things like that because things are very bad for four and a half hours these 27 people were literally trapped.

10:44And Zyma was, I think, one of the bravest. But there were people who collapsed from inhaling smoke. She said one of her favorite colleagues actually passed out. They had a single tap, which was running on the roof. They soaked whatever they could, handkerchief, shirts, things like that, T-shirts, and held it. And they just kind of, you know, waited and waited till the army came.

11:10Soutik Biswas:The army came after four and a half hours, as you were saying. And how did that affect them? How did it affect their work as journalists and their lives? So the other thing is the army and the police possibly had come earlier, but they were not able to control them all. And as I said, it also tells you how badly the law and order was compromised in Bangladesh. By the time they came in, I think a bunch of people from the mob had already come into the building and they had started setting fire on every floor. There was a fantastic photo exhibition which was going on on the ground floor and the first floor, I think, of the July 24 movement by the best photographers they had.

11:52That was burnt to cinders. They went up to the first floor. They burned down an auditorium. They burned down the entire archive. So all in all, I think they suffered from like$2 million worth of losses. When I went there about 40, 50 days later, it was like it seemed that it had been just freshly attacked. It was just like piles and piles of glass heaped by the entrance and a burnt out shell and foreign diplomats were still filing through.

12:21Soutik Biswas:At the same time, a similar attack was launched against its Bengali sister, Proto Malu. Can you tell us what was happening there? Prothomalo was lucky. The journalists at Prothomalo had already evacuated by the time the mob died. So thankfully, we didn't have a siege-like situation at Prothomalo. So how do you come back after that? How long did it take them to resume operation, to resume working? So the interesting thing is these 28 journalists and staffers went down to the staircase. The army created a safe passage. but the newspaper actually didn't come out the next morning. The print edition came out on the 20th.

13:03On the 20th of December, they came back with an eight-page edition and the headline prominently was Unbowed, which was a very, very striking headline with a photograph of the burning building. I think it was one of the most powerful front pages I've seen on newspapers.

13:20Soutik Biswas:Are there precedents for something similar for attacks against journalists in Bangladesh? and going on from there, what are the challenges for the new Prime Minister of Bangladesh? Bangladesh is not the safest country to be a journalist. Now, if you look at the Reporters Without Borders rankings from 2025, I think it ranks at 149. It used to be in the 150s and 60s. It's notched up a little bit because the last one year, media has seen some relative freedoms because there was interim government. But yeah, I mean, a lot of intimidation in the last 15 years, There's a lot of restrictive laws. A lot of journalists have been jailed for criticizing the government.

13:59A lot of the media groups are actually owned by business houses with close ties with the political parties. And journalists are charged by this Digital Security Act for any online criticism. So the freedom of the press has been under a lot of stress, especially in the last 15 years as the government got more and more oppressive. But, you know, there are, I think, 200 newspapers or something in Bangladesh coming out every morning, small, big, large. So ostensibly, if you go there, you will think that this must be a very, very vibrant country media wise, because there's so much of print. There's literally, there are still newsstands.

14:39There's still a lot of newspapers and magazines and so on. And of course, Protho Malu and Daily Star are the leading periodicals. But yes, they have worked under a lot of stress. And to your question about what a new government could do is, I think the new government has to possibly make sure that Bangladesh should return to a vibrant democracy, which it has been from time to time. When I went to Bangladesh in Dhaka in Maiman Singh in December, it was exactly that. Because there was an interim government in power. Suddenly, the media was like, felt completely free. People were discussing everything under the sun, criticizing and in bar rooms and hotels and restaurants.

15:24And it felt like the most vibrant South Asian capital in December. More vibrant than Delhi. Absolutely. I mean, it was so free. the new government needs to make sure that the argumentative Bangladeshi civil society and media should not be strangled, you know, because, you know, Bengalis are very argumentative people. They love debates and they love criticism and everything else. So this is completely unlike the character of Bangladesh to kind of put the media in fetters.

16:00Soutik Biswas:Thank you, Shotik. Shotik Biswas.

16:08Soutik Biswas:You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service. This is The Fifth Floor, and I'm Irena Taranyuk. Have you or a loved one ever suffered from an exploded head due to an extreme energy drink? Hi, this is Larry Deathstein, attorney at law. Every day, thousands of Americans pound extreme energy drinks and literally explode their heads right off. At Deathstein and Partners, we fight for you. So take action today. It's stopped by the Deathstein and Partners office, where we only serve liquid death's new sparkling energy. A better-for-you energy drink. There's nothing extreme about it.

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18:01Soutik Biswas:that the fifth floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from BBC journalists from all over the world. They're always like half-step away from a big breakthrough because it just takes one good acquaintance, right? One good opportunity for them to get access to something really important. It seems in most of the cases, in 90 or maybe even 99 % of the cases, it doesn't happen. But what if it happens? Journalists from the BBC's 43 language services are here to help you make sense of the world. Serbia has decided to withdraw tons and tons of gold from abroad back to its own vaults.

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18:58Soutik Biswas:To excite your curiosity. She's glamorous, unpredictable, and at times aggressively confrontational. And to get to grips with the facts behind the headlines. We haven't seen him in photos or videos or anything on state media since his succession. And even like before that, the videos and photos of him were very scarce. And we don't know much about him, but some fear that he's going to be exact replica of his father. That last voice you heard was my colleague Gonche Habibi Azat of BBC Persian. And right now I would like to remind you about the work of Gonche and all her colleagues at BBC Persian, which is the Persian language service of the BBC News, and it's used by 24 million people around the world, the majority of them in Iran, despite being blocked and routinely jammed by Iranian authorities.

19:56Soutik Biswas:Hallyu, or the Korean wave, is what South Koreans call the international success of TV shows like Squid Game and K-pop Demon Hunters. The phenomenon has grown since 1990s, encompassing South Korean music, TV drama, food and cosmetics. Boy band BTS have been a huge part of the Hallyu craze since they were formed in 2010, holding a clutch of streaming records and finding legions of fans with songs like Dynamite and Boy With Love. In 2022, they took a pause to complete their military service. as they prepare for a huge return concert in Seoul at the end of March. Sanwuk Lee of BBC Korean is with me on the fifth floor.

20:41Soutik Biswas:Sanwuk, welcome to the fifth floor. How has the band's return been received in their home country, South Korea? I can see a lot of people's excited reactions here in Seoul. Their comeback concert will be held on the 21st of March. So Seoul City is preparing for their concert. They are installing the stage. And then a lot of restaurants around there, a lot of hotels around there are preparing for their show. I went to the street in Seoul with my colleague to ask people how they think about BTS' comeback. And I was so surprised to see how people are thrilled about this. And then especially I met a lot of foreigners who just came for the show.

21:26and then they told me that they've been waiting for this for more than three years. Can you tell us more about the significance of the place where the concert would be held? Yeah, so the first concert is going to be held at Gwangamun Square and then Gwangamun is the main gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace which was the main royal palace during the Joseon dynasty, the former Korean kingdom. And so Gwangamun and the square in front of it are widely considered as the symbolic heart of the city. So it's one of the most popular places for foreign visitors to see, but also for Koreans. It has a deeper meaning, and many people see Gwangamun Square as a historic and symbolic space that represents the country itself.

22:21Soutik Biswas:There is a certain symbolism, right, that this historic place is being taken over by BTS, the kings of the Hallyu wave, right? Yeah. Can you tell us this absence of nearly three years from touring, from giving live concerts, it was because the band members had to undergo military service. Weren't they supposed to be exempt? As people might know, South Korea and North Korea are officially still in war state. So in South Korea, every man has to go to the military. So in these days, the term is 18 months, one year and a half. So the BTS members began to go to the military from 2023, I guess. They stopped their concert in 2022 and then began to go to the military one by one.

23:21So it was last year the last member came out from the military service.

23:27Soutik Biswas:They staggered their military service, taking turns to do their duty, military duty, in order not to disappear completely, right? Because they were at the peak of their popularity, so they couldn't just all go at the same time. Is that the reasoning? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is why they didn't go all together. Sunwuk, and can you tell us how the government had to be involved in the debate of the military service for the BTS members? Not just for BTS, but for all the athletes, all the famous athletes or all the famous artists. Some people argue that losing some great people for nearly two years is kind of loss for the country, for the whole country.