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The protests triggered by a recent attack on a national minority students’ demonstration continued for the third consecutive day on Friday.
A case was filed against 28 people with the Motijheel police station in Dhaka on the day over the attack on the demonstration demanding the re-inclusion of the word ‘Adivasi’ in the textbooks in front of the NCTB Bhaban in the capital on January 15.
Different political, academic and social organisations continued to condemn the attack on the national minority students while protest rallies were held at different places in the country.
At a protest rally, former Jahangirnagar University economics professor Anu Muhammad urged the government to seek apology for the attack.
The International Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission on the day strongly condemned the attack and demanded justice, proper medical treatment for the injured and effective measures to prevent such occurrences in future.
The protesting national minority students called for a solidarity rally on the Raju Memorial Sculpture premises in the capital today, demanding restoration of the word ‘Adivasi’ in the textbooks and their constitutional recognition.
More than a dozen, mostly students under the banner of Sangkhubdhho Adivasi Chhatra-Janata (aggrieved indigenous students-people), were injured in two attacks by the Students for Sovereignty, an organisation claimed to be of Dhaka University students, in front of the NCTB Bhaban in the capital on January 15 in police presence.
Recently the National Curriculum and Textbook Board removed a graffiti carrying the word ‘Adivasi’ from the back cover of the Bangla grammar book for the Classes of IX and X, following demand from the group.
On January 16, at least seven individuals, mostly students, were injured when the police swooped on a protest rally held in protest of the attack in the capital.
Ganatantrik Odhikar Committee, a platform working for democratic rights and freedom of expression, organised a protest rally in front of the National Museum in Dhaka on Friday, protesting the attacks on the national minority students and their supporters in January 15-16.
Chairing the programme, Anu Muhammad said that they did not think that they would have to gather in such a protest rally within five months of the formation of this interim government.
‘People expected that this government would have the power to understand the language and necessity of the people,’ he said, adding, ‘now it seems this government is yet to get the power to understand that or it is not willing to do so.’
‘All of the injured were activists of the July mass uprising,’ Anu said, adding that, ‘the Yunus government has to seek apology directly for their role in the attack.’
The rally was addressed, among others, by labour leader Abdullah Kafi, researcher, writer and activist Maha Mirza, injured students Abu Taib and Evan, and committee members Mahtab Uddin and Aogkan Chakma.
After the rally, the Ganatantrik Odhikar Committee held a torch procession and paraded different roads in the Dhaka University area.
Pahari Chhatra Parishad Dhaka city unit president Jagadish Chakma, also the plaintiff of the case, filed the case on Friday with the Motijheel police station against 28 people and at least 200-300 unnamed others.
‘We filed the case at about 1:30am on Friday,’ said Jagadish Chakma.
The named accused in the case included Arif Al Khabir, 38, Md Abbas, 24, Dhaka University law department student Md Ziaul Haque, 28, DU criminology department student Mohiuddin Rahat, 23, DU physics department student Md Yakub Mozumder, 20, and Shahadat Farazi Sakib, 35, who was sacked on Thursday night from the political platform Jatiya Nagorik Committee’s Dhanmondi unit, according to the case statements.
Khabir and Abbas were arrested January 15 night.
The case statements added that 15 national minority students were injured when the Students for Sovereignty attacked them on January 15.
Motijheel police station officer-in-charge Mesbah Uddin said that they had arrested two persons accused in the case and they were now in jail.
‘We will seek remand for the two arrested for interrogation,’ he added.
The Sangkhubdhho Adivasi Chhatra-Janata held protest rallies at different places, including Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar, in the country on Friday.
In a statement issued on Friday, the CHT Commission said that the attack was not an isolated incident, but part of a systemic culture of impunity that existed in the CHT and for the national minority people across Bangladesh.
The statement also said, ‘It is both extremely disappointing and alarming that such an attack took place under the current interim government, which has pledged to create a new, inclusive, democratic, and diverse Bangladesh.’
‘We further urge the interim government to take swift and decisive action to curb the influence of extremist forces and settler groups, safeguard the rights and security of indigenous people both within and beyond the CHT, and honour its commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive Bangladesh,’ it added.Â
The University Teachers’ Network in a statement, signed by 78 teachers from different public and private universities, on Friday condemned the attacks on the national minority students and their supporters.
The network demanded legal action against the responsible people and urged the government and NCTB to show cause for removing the word ‘Adivasi’ from the textbook.
The network called a protest rally at Manik Mia Avenue in Dhaka t 11am today.
The Transparency International Bangladesh in a statement expressed deep concern, saying that the NCTB revealed itself as a friend and rehabilitation centre for the fallen authoritarianism by removing the graffiti.
This step of the NCTB and the attacks are a betrayal of the spirit and expectations of a discrimination-free Bangladesh, the statement said.
The TIB urged the government to clear its position on the question of equal rights-based status.
The Bangladesh Udichi Shilpigoshthi and the Chittagong Hill Tracts Writers’ Union in separate press releases condemned the attacks on the national minority students and their supporters and demanded exemplary punishment of the perpetrators.
