47 eminent citizens denounce communal attacks, demand justice

Forty-seven eminent citizens today denounced the recent communal attacks on the Hindu community at villages and puja mandaps in different parts of the country and urged the government to ensure justice.

In a joint statement, they called upon the government to identify and nab those behind the attacks and also compensate the victims of the incidents.

"We denounce the recent spate of attacks and vandalism on the puja mandaps, houses and establishments of the country's religious minority community. We believe that those who are involved in the incidents, directly or indirectly, are against ensuring equal rights to all the countrymen and are hence against the spirit of the country's independence and sovereignty. Therefore, we urge the government to immediately identify these miscreants and bring them to book, and also compensate those who were victimised in the incidents," the citizens said in the statement.  

"Immediately after the incident in Cumilla, the administration and law enforcers across the country should have taken more stern, alert and responsible measures to this end. However, we noticed numerous similar incidents to have taken place across the country centring the incident, and the administration and law enforcers cannot avoid the responsibility for their failure to avert those. The reason for such lack of active measures by the administration and law enforcers must be figured out. Also, the legality of law enforcers shooting at mobs to disperse them at some places must also be investigated," the statement read.

"Following these violent and heinous incidents across the country, we have observed with grave concern that the prominent political parties are engaged in a blame game in their habitual manner, instead of trying to avert these incidents by working unitedly. In the absence of sufficient evidence, such culture of blame game in reality paves way for the culprits to remain in the shadow and get away with their crimes. We call upon the politicians to refrain from such irresponsible act of trading blame … We also request the law enforcement agencies to refrain from harassing people by filing of cases and making arrests en masse," it also read.

"Despite such communal attacks having happened before, there has not been any justice delivered to this end yet. As a result of this culture of impunity, similar incidents continue to happen. We strongly demand promptly bringing to book those people and organisations who were involved in these crimes by creating communal tension. We urge the government to unite together with the members of society who possess good conscience to take realistic steps for establishing communal harmony and ensuring equal rights to all citizens," the eminent citizens added in the statement.

Signatories of the joint statement are: Dr Serajul Islam Chowdhury, emeritus professor of Dhaka University; Barrister Amir-ul Islam, former minister and member of the constitution formulation committee; M Hafizuddin Khan, former adviser to the caretaker government; Dr Akbar Ali Khan, retired cabinet secretary and former adviser to the caretaker government; Rasheda K Chowdhury, former adviser to the caretaker government; former Supreme Court Justice Abdul Matin; former election commissioner Dr M Shakhawat Hossain; Sultana Kamal, human rights activist and former adviser to the caretaker government; Dr Hamida Hosssain, human rights activist; Dr Saleh Uddin Ahmed, former governor of Bangladesh Bank; Ali Imam Mazumder, former cabinet secretary; Abu Alam Shahid Khan, former secretary to local government ministry; Mohiuddin Ahmed, former secretary to foreign affairs ministry; Dr Devapriya Bhattacharya, economist; Khushi Kabir, human rights activist; Prof Parween Hasan, VC of Central Women's University; Dr Badiul Alam Majumder, secretary of Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan); Prof Anu Muhammad of Jahangirnagar University; Prof Tofail Ahmed, local government expert; Tariq Karim, former ambassador of Bangladesh; Dr Shahdeen Malik, advocate at the Supreme Court; Shirin Haque, member of Naripokkho; Barrister Sara Hossain, advocate at the Supreme Court; Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation; Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid; DU Prof Geeti Ara Nasrin; Sanjeeb Drong, general secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum (BIPF); Dr Shahidul Alam, photographer; Sharmeen Murshid, chief executive officer of Brotee; Syeda Rizwana Hasan, advocate at the Supreme Court; Prof Asif Nazrul of DU; Prof Rehnuma Ahmed, author; former DU Prof Akmal Hossain; Prof Swapan Adnan, faculty member and researcher at SOAS University of London; Prof Firdous Azim of Brac University; Syed Abu Naser Bakhtiar Ahmed, former banker; Selim Rayhan, executive director of South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM); DU Prof Robayet Ferdous; Golam Monowar Kamal, executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK); Prof Naila Zaman Khan, director of Clinical Neuroscience Centre at the Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation; Zakir Hossain, chief executive of Nagorik Uddyog; Faruq Faisal, regional director of ARTICLE 19; Dr Faustina Pereira, human rights activist; Nur Khan Liton, human rights activist; Niaz Asadullah, prof at University of Malaya; and Dr Nova Ahmed, associate professor at North South University.