Release quota coordinators or face tough prog
FE REPORT | Wednesday, 31 July 2024
A platform of eminent citizens made an 11-point demand, including unconditional release of the six coordinators of the quota-reform movement from the custody of plainclothes police within 24 hours.
Throwing their weight behind the now muted massive student protests, the platform, styled Agitating Citizens Forum, at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) Tuesday said they would go for tougher movement if the quota-reform coordinators were not freed by the deadline that expires today (Wednesday).
Speaking at the press meet, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said they would hold programmes like human chain if the coordinators were not released unconditionally in the next 24 hours from the custody of DB (detective branch) police.
"We (the platform) will also announce tougher programmes if our demand is not met," he said. Other demands of the forum include capital punishment for those responsible for the killings in the ongoing quota protests, irrespective of their position and political affiliation.
They also demand proper and transparent probes and accurate trial against the members of the law-enforcement agencies and activists of the ruling-party wings like Bangladesh Chhatra League and Jubo League who they said fired shots during the quota protests.
Simultaneously, they demand an independent, acceptable and credible probe under high-positioned specialists of the United Nations into every killing, and law enforcers' "use of weapons and application of force".
Calling an immediate end to the ongoing crackdown against the students, they demanded immediate release of all arrested students before the reopening of all educational institutions.
Chief Executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Dhaka University Mass Communication and Journalism Department Professor Giti Ara Nasreen, Dhaka University Law Department Professor Asif Nazrul, Sociology Department Professor Samina Luthfa, Jahangirnagar University Anthropology Department teacher Mirza Taslima Sultana, and ALRD Executive Director Shamsul Huda also spoke at the press conference.
Meanwhile, the situation remained a bit fraught in the aftermath of the waves of demonstrations and devastations at the height, with incrementally relaxed curfew in place and security forces in deployment across the country as the protesters stuck to their modified nine-point demands.