Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), leftist student front Bangladesh Chhatra Union, and Bangladesh Krishak Samity, which advocates farmers’ rights, condemned the Detective Branch (DB) of police’s drive at the home of Lucky Akhter, a popular student leader, in Shantinagar early Thursday.
In separate press releases, the three organisations
expressed their shock, calling it “unimaginable in a democratic country”. They said law enforcers cannot operate such drives “without any permission or specific allegation.” They also pressed home that the quota reform movement is rational, and that the leaders of the movement were being arrested without any warrants, going against the constitution and evoking fascism, they said. To repress the quota movement, ruling party Awami League and their student front Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) have taken on an unprecedented face of autocracy, they added. They demanded immediate release of quota reformist APM Suhel and legal steps against the cops who forced their way into Lucky’s house.
Early Thursday, detectives reportedly picked up APM Suhel, a leader of the quota reform movement, from the residence of Lucky Akhter, the former Chhatra Union activist who rose to prominence during the 2013 protests in Shahbagh demanding the death penalty for convicted war criminals. Suhel, a joint convener of Bangladesh General Students’ Rights Protection Council and student of Jagannath University’s English Department, had gone to her house to stay the night, Lucky said in her Facebook post.
