NGO FORUM ON ADB DEMANDS BANGLADESH GOVERNMENT TO END ALL FORMS OF VIOLENCE AND CRACKDOWN ON STUDENTS AND JOURNALISTS

Bangladeshi students participate in a protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo: AP

NGO Forum on ADB along with other civil society organizations around the world expresses its strongest condemnation regarding the abusive shortcuts being used by the Bangladesh authorities to solve the public outcry regarding the death of two students last July 29 due to an over speeding bus.

The Forum also demand that the authorities should immediately release anyone they have arrested for peacefully criticizing the government, and instead shouldprosecute those who are attacking students for demanding improved road safety.  Despite the clear and justifiable demands, this was met with unlawful attacks by the Bangladesh authorities and the Chatro League [1]. They arrested students, even girls, women, and children, who are just helping restore order in the city.  The authorities resorted to heavy violence against the peaceful student protesters using batons, physical threats, jamming mobile Internet connections, water cannons and tear gas to disperse the marching protesters.

NGO Forum on ADB also condemns the sexual harassment [2] faced by girls and women during the attacks on the mass student protest.  It was stated that while this was happening police authorities were just standing by, taking photos and videos to be able to identify the protesters. It was also reported that the police did not make any attempt to stop these acts aimed at unarmed youth and civilians.

Furthermore, NGO Forum on ADB demands the immediate release of renowned photographer andactivist, Mr. Shahidul Alam who was arrested from his house by 30 to 35 plainclothes police officers, this is after he gave an interview with Al Jazeera regarding the protest, where he stated that what is happening is not just an issue on road safety but is about a deeper more concerning crisis such as - “looting of banks, the gagging of the media, the extrajudicial killings, disappearing’s, bribery and corruption"[3].

Mr. Shahidul Alam is facing charges under Section 57 of Information and Communication Technology Act (ICT Act), which allows the prosecution of anyperson who publishes, in electronic form, material that is fake and obscene; defamatory; tends to deprave and corrupt its audience; causes, or may cause, deterioration in law and order; prejudices the image of the state or a person; or causes or may cause hurt to religious belief [4].  This law has been used over and over again to prosecute those who criticize the government or individual politicians. Along with Mr. Shahidul Alam; several journalists, particularly photographers andvideographers have been persecuted and hurt by police and Chatro League while they were documenting the protest actions.

Lastly, NGO Forum on ADB thinks that this is a lucid proof of a populist and authoritarian government encroaching on the space of civil society, promoting repression, securitized environment, and criminalization of people, especially youths who want raise key issues pertaining to governance and rule of law. We urge your office to raise these issues with the necessary government agencies and restore peace, dignity, free press, human rights, and democratic practice in Bangladesh.

NGO Forum on ADB demands the immediate release of Mr. Shahidul Alam from unlawful imprisonment.

NGO Forum on ADB demands immediate action by the government to end all forms ofpersecution and suppression of journalists, press personnel and media.

NGO Forum on ADB demands that government immediately end all forms of violence and crackdown on peaceful protesters and reinstate healthy democratic practice in the state. (By Mari Jeanie Derillo Santos)