Amar Desh journalist Jahidul Islam was reportedly beaten by BNP activists and office staff at the party chairperson's office in Gulshan, Dhaka, today after his phone was seized and broken while recording a video of a dispute among nomination seekers from the Sylhet division.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Jahidul said he had been covering the nomination process since this morning. "Around 4:30pm, I went inside the office. Then I saw the nomination seekers quarrelling and scuffling amongst themselves. When I tried to record a video with my phone, three-four people dragged me inside a room and beat me. They broke my phone. When I showed my press ID, they kept my card," he said.

Jahidul identified one of the attackers as Mohammad Faisal, an office staff member who he claimed also works as the cameraman for BNP's official social media page. "Faisal broke my phone and also assaulted me. Then they beat me and pushed me out of the office," he alleged.

As of filing this report at 7:50pm, he did not get his phone back.

When contacted, Faisal denied the accusation, saying, "This is completely false. I was not involved in this incident at all."

In a statement issued later, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir condemned the attack. "At 4:00pm today, during the attack and clash at the BNP Chairperson's Gulshan office, Amar Desh newspaper's reporter Zahid Hasan was injured, and some journalists present were harassed. Today's incident was sudden and completely caused by a misunderstanding. I sincerely apologise to Zahid Hasan and all the journalists present during this unfortunate event," he said.

"Journalists inform public about statements, speeches, and activities of political parties. This is why the media has an inseparable relationship with political parties," he added.