Two journalists were physically assaulted, briefly held against their will, and stripped of their professional equipment after attempting to document widespread cheating during an exam at Kazipur Degree College in Gangni Upazila, Meherpur. The incident occurred on Friday, 28 August, during an examination conducted under the Bangladesh Open University (BOU) degree programme.
The victims have been identified as Rabbi Ahmed, the Meherpur district correspondent for Bangladesh Betar and Nagorik Television, and Tareq Hossain, the district correspondent for the daily newspaper Khabarer Kagoj. According to the journalists, they had received specific tip-offs alleging that college authorities were permitting candidates to consult textbooks during the examination in exchange for an illicit payment of 500 taka per student.
Upon arriving at the examination centre to verify the reports, the journalists observed several examinees writing their papers with open textbooks on their desks. When they began recording footage of the irregularities on their mobile phones, a group of teachers—led by Moniruzzaman Biplob—confronted them aggressively. The situation escalated rapidly into a physical assault. The attackers confiscated two mobile phones used for filming alongside a Nagorik Television boom microphone before locking both journalists inside a room on the campus.
Rabbi Ahmed and Tareq Hossain managed to escape from confinement shortly afterwards. They sought immediate medical attention for their injuries at Gangni Upazila Health Complex before proceeding to the local police station to lodge a formal complaint. Tareq Hossain noted that the teachers reacted with extreme hostility the moment they were asked about the open-book cheating, resorting to violence to destroy the recorded evidence.
The news of the assault sparked sharp indignation across the media community in Meherpur. Local journalist associations convened to condemn the attack on press freedom, demanding the immediate arrest of the implicated faculty members and decisive institutional sanctions against the examination centre.
BOU distance-learning programmes, designed primarily to offer flexible higher education opportunities to working adults and mature students across Bangladesh, rely on rigorous examination oversight to maintain academic integrity. Allegations of institutionalised bribery and invigilator complicity at local test centres threaten to undermine the credibility of these national qualifications.
Officer-in-Charge of Gangni Police Station, Muhaddid Morshed Chowdhury, confirmed that a written complaint had been registered and assured that the matter is receiving top priority. Law enforcement officers have initiated a formal inquiry to track down the perpetrators, recover the seized broadcasting equipment, and press criminal charges against those responsible.
