Govt action absurd

Academics, students, bloggers and citizens' groups at a rally at the base of Raju memorial on Dhaka University campus yesterday demanding immediate release of arrested bloggers. Photo: Star

Frustration ran high among citizens as the government arrested another blogger yesterday, accusing him of demeaning Islam. They urged the ruling party not to sacrifice values of democracy and the Liberation War to appease evil forces.
At a demonstration at Dhaka University, academics, activists, students, bloggers and citizens groups demanded that the government uphold people's constitutional right to freedom of speech, instead of promoting jingoism and bigotry.
People could understand that arrest of four bloggers until now was not intended to protect their religious sentiments, the speakers said. Rather, it was a ploy of the ruling Awami League to garner votes.
“In DU, we teach a lot of things, including Darwin's theory. If someone takes offence to that and says we are all atheists and should be arrested, then what [will the government do]?” Dhaka University Prof M M Akash said.
He said he feared the country would go back to the era of darkness.
Hefazat-e Islam is only concerned about the accused war criminals, who are being tried and ignores the plight of millions of Bangladeshi Muslims who live in oppression and poverty, said Jahangirnagar University Prof Anu Mohammad.
It was war criminals who insulted Islam by committing the worst crimes against humanity in the name of religion during the 1971 war, he added.
Referring to the government, cultural activist Rokeya Prachi said, “If you have to negotiate with anyone, negotiate with the mass people, not with Hefazat-e Islam.”
In the morning, Dhaka University students and teachers held a rally, demanding that the arrestees be freed within 24 hours.
They warned the government of tougher programmes unless the arrestees are released.
“It hurts that a party, which came to power with a pledge to stand against anti-liberation forces, has now given in to a Islamist group like Hefazat-e Islam," said Bangla Prof Rafiqullah Khan at the rally.
It was not justifiable that somebody should be arrested for their write ups in blogs, said Rubayet Ferdous, a teacher of mass communication and journalism department.
Blog is a place where people express their thoughts and imagination in words. So, if any remark is offensive to anyone, he can counter that through words, Rubayet said.
After a meeting with a group of representatives of the protesters, Dhaka University Vice-chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique said the university would contact the authorities concerned in this regard.
Meanwhile, former student leaders of 80's and 90's in a press release said the government was listening to Jamaat-Shibir activists and its allies and violated one of the core principles of the constitution -- secularism.
The Bangladesh Worker's Party, in a separate press release, condemned the arrests and said such actions by the government meant that it had chosen to take sides with the forces that attempted to demean the Shahbagh movement demanding death penalty to war criminals, by labelling the protesters as “atheists.”