‘It is surrender to fundamentalists’

Ruling Awami League’s ally and a part of the coalition government, Workers Party today hit back sharply at the removal of the statue of Lady Justice from Supreme Court premises.

“Removal of the sculpture is a shameless surrender to the fundamentalists,” the party which claims to be a left-leaning party, said in a statement issued this afternoon.

“Unfortunately, the debate has been diverted to sculpture versus statue. In actuality, this does not have any relation to religion. This reactionary step is unfortunate for the nation,” the statement read.

The statement from Workers’ Party comes at a time when the social media is being taken by storm over this issue, and alongside, Islamists are demanding removal of all the statues across Bangladesh.

The statue of Lady Justice was taken down in the late hours of last night, a month after Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam demanded its removal from the Supreme Court premises.

Earlier on April 11, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a meeting with the Alem and Ulema from Qawmi madrasas said she personally did not like the statue on the SC premises either.

Later on April 17, Hasina told her cabinet colleagues that she had asked the CJ either to remove the statue or reinstall it at another place so that it cannot be seen from the National Eidgah.

The removal sparked a wave of protest in the social media. This morning, protests broke out at Dhaka University, where police used tear gas shells and water cannons to quell protesters.