Sector commanders denied permission for convention

Sector Commanders' Forum (SCF) postponed the national convention it planned for tomorrow as the government yesterday refused them the permission to hold the gathering.
Originally scheduled for December 13 last year, the programme seeking to assemble freedom fighters and pro-Liberation War organisations was postponed before on December 10.
The organisers then claimed they had to call it off since the government go-ahead came at the last moment.
A platform of the commanders, who led the war against occupying Pakistan forces in 11 sectors, the SCF later rescheduled the event to be held on March 15 at the city's Bangladesh-China Friendship Convention Centre.
The war heroes first declared they would hold a national convention to mobilise public support in demanding trial of the war criminals in August last year.
Briefing reporters at the police headquarters, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Naim Ahmed yesterday said, "Law and order might deteriorate if the permission was given to hold the convention."
Besides, he alleged, there was discrepancy between the invitations and the letter seeking permission.
The SCF in their application said they would arrange a discussion and cultural programme to pay tribute to the martyred freedom fighters while the invitation cards say the convention would seek to marshal people in demanding trial of war criminals.
The DMP commissioner added that the application said there would be a cultural programme while the invitations mention nothing about that.
Instead, they say working/representative sessions would feature in the conference.
The sector commanders described the government's decision as "very unfortunate".
They outright rejected the DMP commissioner's allegations, and said there is no inconsistency between what has been stated in the invitations and the application for permission.
"On January 14, we sent a letter to the government asking for its permission. But now when we are at the final stage of our preparation it has decided against the convention," SCF President AK Khandker, former air force chief, told The Daily Star last night.
He said in no way would the convention cause the law and order to deteriorate.
"We organised similar programmes in six divisions and nothing untoward happened," added Khandker, who was the deputy chief of the Liberation War Forces in 1971.
Lt Gen (retd) M Harun-ar-Rashid, former army chief and SCF chief coordinator, told The Daily Star, "It was to be a non-political gathering and we don't understand why the government had to refuse us the permission."
He said it's a contradictory and wrong step of the government that would lead to questions in public mind about it.
"The authorities did not have any problem with our organising similar programmes in other parts of the country," he observed.
The war commanders will meet today to decide on the next course of action.