Dhaka, Aug 29: Bangladesh police have announced that they will lodge cases under the Anti-Terrorism Act against a prominent 1971 Liberation War veteran and 15 others after they were “rescued” from a mob during a public discussion.
The 16 detainees, including former minister and 1971 war veteran Abdul Latif Siddiqui, Dhaka University law professor Hafizur Rahman Curzon, journalist Manjurul Alam Panna, several freedom fighters, and former bureaucrats, were charged under the tough Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009.
The announcement came nearly 11 hours after Dhaka Police Deputy Commissioner Masud Alam said the group was taken into custody to protect them from public unrest.
The 16 were targeted on Thursday when they gathered for a public discussion titled “Our Great Liberation War and the Constitution of Bangladesh.”
The mob called the organisers and participants of the event “accomplices of the fascist regime” of the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and alleged they rallied there to conspire against last year’s student-led movement, dubbed as the ‘July Uprising’.
The violent movement led by Students against Discrimination (SAD) toppled Hasina’s Awami League regime on August 5, 2024.
The newly formed veterans’ platform ‘Moncho 71’ was launched earlier this month, announcing that it would uphold the “1971 Liberation War, Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the 1972 Constitution, the national flag and the national anthem”.
The group that stormed the auditorium identified themselves as the ‘July warriors’ and allegedly assaulted some of the participants chanting slogans such as “Let the weapon of July roar again”, “Catch a league (Awami Leaguer), send him to jail” and “July warriors would not allow any such conspiracy to be hatched”.
Elderly lawyer and Liberation War veteran ZI Khan Panna called the mob “a group of miscreants” and said the assault “reflects what freedom of expression now exists in the country” under the interim government.
DRU later issued a statement saying “DRU is an open platform. Everyone has freedom of expression here. Threats or obstruction from any party are not acceptable here.” (PTI)
