The director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) was beaten inside his office after men entered it.
The incident took place at about 11am on Wednesday.
The institute’s director, Professor Kazi Ahmed Zaki, said activists of the Doctors’ Association of Bangladesh (DAB), the pro-BNP doctors’ body, formed a mob and carried out the attack.
Video of the assault shows Kazi Ahmed in a meeting with several people in his room when eight or nine men enter. They pull him up from his chair and start beating him.
IEDCR is an important government agency. Its work includes monitoring disease in the country, research and issuing alerts.
IEDCR works jointly with bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
After the BNP government took office it appointed Professor Kazi Ahmed to IEDCR’s top post of director. He is a public health expert and recently conducted research on the effectiveness of the measles vaccine.
DAB president Professor Harun Al Rashid confirmed the incident to the media. “He (Kazi Ahmed) also has some fault,” he said.
Asked what fault, he showed a photo on his mobile phone and said: “How can Kazi Ahmed, under this government, hold a meeting with Meerjady Sabrina Flora in his own office?”
Public health expert Meerjady Sabrina Flora was director of IEDCR under the Awami League government ousted in the July uprising. She became widely known for her media briefings on the coronavirus and later served as an additional director general of the Directorate General of Health Services.
A public health expert who was in the room during the assault, speaking to the media on condition of anonymity, said he had never seen the attackers at IEDCR before.
Public health expert and former IEDCR chief scientific officer Mushtuq Husain told the media that beating the director in his own office was a highly condemnable act. It must be investigated and those responsible punished, he said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report