Quota reform movement: Free all detainees within 24 hours

All the detainees, particularly the students who staged quota reform protests, must be released within 24 hours, a group of eminent citizens demanded yesterday afternoon.

Speaking at a human chain, they said although the six coordinators of the quota reform movement have been released, many people, including students, teachers and ordinary citizens, are still in police custody.

The programme was organised under the banner of Aggrieved Citizens' Society in front of the office of the DMP's Detective Branch on Minto Road.

"The people of Bangladesh pay taxes. Using guns and bullets bought with taxpayers' money, police personnel shot people, including students," said Debapriya Bhattacharya, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue.

He demanded probes by international organisations like the United Nations into the recent killings of people, including students and children.

He said educational institutions must be reopened after the withdrawal of all law enforcement and security agency personnel from the campuses.

Prof Asif Nazrul of Dhaka University's law department said, "We want justice for the killings. We want those who ordered the killings to be brought to book."

He said three out of the six coordinators of the quota reform protests were tortured by a state agency before being picked up from a city hospital. Those involved in their illegal detention should face abduction charges, he added.

Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh, said all law enforcement agencies, including the DB, have "resorted to lying and cheating to deceive the people".

The repeated deception has fostered a belief among the law enforcers that they can act with impunity indefinitely, he said.

"Admit the truth that you have shot students indiscriminately, detained them without any cause, and wronged many, including students and teachers, depriving them of their rights."

Mentioning the arrest of a 16-year-old boy over the killing of Abu Sayed in Rangpur, Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF), said, "Didn't we see how Abu Sayed was killed?"

She said students have been picked up by law enforcers in the dead of night, causing widespread fear among parents.

"Mothers can't sleep. They keep looking through the windows, with worries that cops might visit their homes to pick up their children."

She demanded immediate release of all the detained students and children.

Brac University teacher Saimum Reza Talukder said Arif Sohel, a coordinator of the quota reform movement at Jahangirnagar University, was arrested for an arson attack on Setu Bhaban in the capital though he was leading the protests on his campus.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, said they want assurance that the six released coordinators would be able to carry on doing their works freely and safely.

"Do you think us as slaves whom you can just pick up at will and detain for as long as you wish? Then you offer us noodles, polao, chicken, or eggs and circulate those images to the media.

"We have seen political arrestees receiving treatment at the PG hospital for long. In the latest case, you picked up the tortured students without giving them treatment. We don't want this kind of law enforcement agencies.

"We don't want the police of the Awami League, BNP, or Jatiya Party…. You [police] should work for the people and be the police of Bangladesh," she said.

Samina Lutfha, an associate professor of sociology at DU, said, "You are in power to protect the people of Bangladesh, not to cause bloodshed on the streets. Stop torturing the people of Bangladesh."

Human rights activists Farida Akhter, Shireen Huq, Nur Khan Liton, Association for Land Reform and Development Executive Director Shamsul Haque, Prof Gitiara Nasreen of DU, Prof Mirza Taslima Sultana of JU and Prof Sayeed Ferdous were also present.

Rushad Faridi, an assistant professor of economics at DU, announced that they would hold their next protest rally "Droho Jatra" at 3:00pm today in front of the Jatiya Press Club.

He called upon the people from all walks of life to join the rally.