Rifat Rashid, president of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, has said that the organization is compiling a list of officers-in-charge (OCs), superintendents of police (SPs) and senior commanding officers of police stations under whose jurisdiction students and members of the public were killed during the July mass uprising.
The organization has decided to submit this list to the ICT Tribunal and file cases against those concerned.
Rifat made the announcement on Sunday evening at a press conference held at Dhaka University.
At the event, he added one more demand to the previously announced two-point program given at Shahbagh on Saturday night, bringing the total to three demands and two programs.
Three-point demands
- Not merely bail, but the unconditional release of Mahdi must be ensured, and the officer-in-charge of Shayestaganj police station in Habiganj must be withdrawn.
- An ordinance must be issued by the president within the next 24 hours, granting indemnity for all activities carried out by students, workers and the general public who participated in the July mass uprising between July 1 and August 8.
- The historical contributions of all members of the military, paramilitary and civil administration—including officers, soldiers and employees of the Army, Navy and Air Force—who played a significant role in the July revolution must be formally documented. Their honour, recognition and legal protection must be ensured. A permanent commission must be formed to prevent harassment in the workplace, and officers in the armed forces who were deprived of promotion after 25 February 2009 due to the repression of fascism must be promptly promoted and appointed to important and sensitive positions.
He reiterated that the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement is preparing a list of OCs, SPs and senior commanding officers of police stations under whose jurisdiction students and members of the public were martyred during the July uprising.
The organization has decided to submit this list to the ICT Tribunal and initiate legal proceedings against them.
He said: “Our second program is to immediately hold discussions with the law adviser and the home affairs adviser and apply pressure to ensure that the indemnity ordinance is issued by the president. This process has already begun today (Sunday)”
Rifat Rashid stated that only partial implementation of their first demand has taken place. “Mahdi has not been released unconditionally; bail has been granted in only one case. Therefore, we say that our first demand has not been fully met. We must continue our struggle and carry it forward,” he said.
He further added: “Today (Sunday) we saw in a video that police were beating a person while he was holding a child in his arms. When a child is in someone’s arms, under which law or logic can any police officer attack in such a situation? We want to know. We want to see whether there is any such example in any civilized state in the world.”
The press conference was attended by the chief coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, Hasib Al Islam, along with other leaders and activists.