Raising a point of order, the ruling party lawmaker said there is link between the recent attacks on journalists and the issue of BNP nomination in his constituency for the upcoming general election.

He also urged the BNP secretary general to look into the incidents.

On May 29, cadres of the ruling BNP and its front organisations launched an attack on a journalists' rally in Kushtia, injuring 25 newsmen, including former BFUJ president and The Bangladesh Observer Editor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury. The rally was organised to protest repression and torture on local journalists.

"Some leaders of journalist unions along with some identified criminals went to Kushtia to hold a rally in which local newsmen did not take part," Shahidul Islam told parliament.

Senior journalists like Shawkat Mahmud, Altaf Mahmud and Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul from Dhaka also did not join the rally in Kushtia, he added.

His statement came after Awami League lawmaker Abdur Razzak accused him of torturing media people and termed the regime of the ruling alliance a black chapter in regard to freedom of the press.

"I was not in Kushtia on that day," Shahidul said, adding that he and one of his party lawmakers from Kushtia Syed Meehedi Ahmed Rumee issued a joint statement protesting the attack.

"No leaders of BNP and its front organisations were involved in the attack," he said.

Referring to the attack on the office of the Andoloner Bazar, a local daily, the BNP lawmaker said the people of Kushtia were exasperated by the repression unleashed by its editor's son.