After beating Jugantor correspondent Monjur Morshed black and blue, local BNP lawmaker Shahidul Alam Talukdar left Baufal for Dhaka Tuesday evening. Party cadres loyal to him then launched a show of force, taking out anti-newsmen processions and threatening their family members until late in the night, sources said.

The BNP men also looked high and low for Monjur, also a lecturer of Management at Engineer Faruk Talukdar Women's College, reportedly to force him to sign a statement denying his abduction and tortures.

They told Monjur's family that if he refuses to obey MP Shahidul, chairman of the college's governing body, he will lose the lectureship.

According to sources, Baufal Police Station Officer-in-Charge Nur Muhammad joined hands with the ruling party men in intimidating the local journalists. He told their family members that the MP has ordered him to implicate them, the newsmen, in non-bailable cases.

A few of the senior local journalists yesterday morning did brave MP Shahidul's declaration on Tuesday to do away with Baufal Press Club and set up a BNP office there.

They opened the club but could stay only a short while, as BNP men shouted threats and were about to launch an attack. The press club members fled in fright.

The henchmen of Shahidul yesterday noon celebrated what they dubbed a victory over journalists, assembling at the house of Madanpura Union Parishad Chairman Rafiqul Islam, a close ally of the MP. They slaughtered a goat and made a feast.

Shahidul, also the upazila BNP president, yesterday flatly denied Tuesday's incident and claimed he and his party do not and never did believe in the politics of terrorism.

However, he said over cellphone, "It [the belief] does not mean we will tolerate everything done in the name of freedoms of press and speech…[that] journalists will write whatever they wish and practise media-terrorism."

According to reports, on Shahidul's command, a 25-strong BNP cadre group led by one Rafiq Talukdar picked up Monjur from his college campus on Tuesday noon for reporting a looting of some 100 maunds of Hilsha fries called Jatka by BNP cadres on Monday.

The abductors took Monjur to the upazila engineer's office at around 1:30pm, where Shahidul Alam beat him up brutally.

Led by Aminul Islam, correspondent of daily Ittefaq and president of Baufal Press Club, local journalists rushed to the upazila office complex to save their colleague. But BNP cadres attacked them too and chased them away.

The newsmen then informed the district police superintendent of the incident, but as of filing of this report last evening no case has been lodged in this connection. Monjur meanwhile remains in hiding with other journalists.

A wide range of professional and human rights organisations have condemned the barbarity and demanded punishment of the persons responsible for it. Barisal Reporters Unity and journalists union yesterday announced a protest programme against the 'repression of journalists by ruling party cadres', which includes a rally this morning.

Locals said MP Shahidul is an infamous godfather of extortionists and musclemen and often uses abusive word against media and media professionals.

In the past, he had assaulted Al-Mamun, local correspondent of daily Prothom Alo, Jitendranath Roy of Jugantor and Kamruzzaman Bachchu of Janakantha. He even had threatened to cut the hand of Kamruzzaman and other reporters if they would write against him.