Twenty-eight journalists were trapped on a roof for four and a half hours while smoke rose up the elevator shaft.
1. The Fifth Floor on the BBC World Service examines the mob attack on The Daily Star and Prothom Alo in Dhaka.
2. Host Irena Taranyuk speaks with BBC journalist Shotik Biswas, who investigated the violence in Bangladesh.
3. The episode asks why two major newspapers were attacked, set on fire, and linked to accusations of being pro-India.
4. Shotik Biswas traces the violence to the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, a young youth leader who died in a Singapore hospital after being shot near a Dhaka mosque.
5. He says Hadi was known for anti-India rhetoric and for founding a cultural organization rather than a political party.
6. He reports that the newspapers were accused of downplaying Hadi’s assassination and were branded as Indian agents.
7. He says the motive for the attack remains unclear, including whether members of Hadi’s organization were involved.
8. He also describes online coordination on Facebook by Bangladeshis outside the country, while saying who organized it is still unclear.
9. Biswas says The Daily Star is a neutral newspaper and Prothom Alo is a serious Bengali-language paper often compared with Le Monde.
10. He notes that Prothom Alo is about 28 years old and The Daily Star about 34 years old.
11. Zima Islam, a 30-something investigative reporter, finished her article about Hadi close to midnight before heading downstairs.
12. She and her colleagues saw Facebook warnings that a mob was moving toward the offices, but expected protests rather than a direct assault.
13. Around 27 people were inside, and 28 journalists and staffers were eventually trapped as glass broke at reception and smoke rose through the building.
14. They climbed from the first floor back to the ninth-floor roof because they thought it was safer if the building was set on fire.
15. Biswas says smoke funneled up the elevator shaft, several people collapsed from inhalation, and one favorite colleague passed out.
16. The army arrived after four and a half hours, and the building had already suffered fires on multiple floors, including the auditorium and archive.
17. Prothom Alo escaped a siege because its journalists evacuated before the mob arrived.
18. The print edition of The Daily Star returned on 20 December with an eight-page front page headlined “Unbowed.”
19. The conversation is an interview-led newsroom account with detailed reporting, concrete chronology, and restrained delivery.
20. Listeners interested in press freedom, Bangladesh politics, and newsroom survival will want it, while those seeking a light current-affairs recap may skip it.
