"The BNP-Jamaat alliance government has created anarchy in the country by torturing and harassing the journalists through their party cadres and the law enforcers since they took charge," Hasina, also president of the main opposition Awami League (AL), said in a statement.

Hasina also noted that some of the journalists of Kushtia were forced to leave their town due to the threats by the goons of the ruling party recently.

The opposition leader also said that the police attacked the journalists' protest rally without any provocation, leaving the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists' (BFUJ) President Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, also the editor of daily Bangladesh Observer, wounded.

The AL President asked the government to put an end to the attacks on the journalists in order to ensure freedom of speech and people and to establish the rule of law and democracy in the country.

At least 20 journalists were injured yesterday in the attack on a journalists' rally in Kushtia district town by the ruling BNP cadres instigated by the local BNP lawmaker Shahidul Islam.