The Dhaka University Teachers' Association (DUTA) has demanded the immediate release of Hridoy Chandra Mondal, a school teacher arrested in Munshiganj on charges of demeaning Islam.
President of DUTA Md Rahmat Ullah and General Secretary Prof Md Nizamul Haque Bhuiyan made the announcement in a media statement on Friday.
The DUTA statement said: “A case has been filed against the elderly teacher through a fourth-grade employee of the school, which appears to be motivated.
“Apart from this, it is also mysterious to file a case under the non-bailable section in a hurry. Plaintiff's lawyer saying that the security of the teacher’s life could be threatened if bail is granted now is worrisome.”
The teachers said that, if such malpractices could not be eradicated, it would be difficult for any teacher to conduct classroom activities independently.
Meanwhile, on Friday afternoon, members of Socialist Students' Front (Marxist) and Science Practice Centre organized a protest rally at the foot of Raju Sculpture of Dhaka University to demand the release of this teacher.
Rashed Shahriar, central general secretary of the Socialist Students' Front (Marxist), said that the teacher had been implicated in a planned manner.
“It was the responsibility of the state to provide security to this teacher. Instead, the government imprisoned him and did not grant him bail,” he observed.
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Arafat Saad, organizing secretary of the Dhaka University unit of the organization, said religious fundamentalism and superstition were on the rise in the country.
He alleged that the current government is partnering with Hefazat-e-Islam on the one hand and claiming to be secular on the other.
Besides, many other groups and civil rights organizations have been protesting the incident across the country with the same demand.
On Thursday, police claimed that initial investigations have found the allegations of demeaning religion against Hridoy Chandra Mondal to be true.
However, Deputy Commissioner Nahid Rasul told Dhaka Tribune: “He may have fallen victim to an incident. Since the allegations are yet to be proven, we cannot say he is guilty.”
On March 22, police detained and later formally arrested Hridoy Mondal, producing him in court the next day, when he was sent to jail.
A second bail plea was denied by a cognizance court on March 28.
On April 4, the defence moved the court of the senior district and sessions judge, which is scheduled to hear the case on April 10.
A local journalist told Bangla Tribune that he saw at least two outsiders, who were instigating the agitated students on the school ground, on that day. The students were told not to accept when the local police officers tried to tame them down.
A teenager appeared in the scene with a garland made of shoes for the teacher. "He had no uniform." The journalist, who wished not to be named, said that he had asked at least 10 students about the incident of defamation, "but none of them could explain me the matter."
Moreover, there were two other people, possibly from the nearby area, in the crowd of the students. They wanted the teacher to wear the garland and parade the area, he told Bangla Tribune.
The agitating students also launched an attack on the house of the teacher with sticks and hurled abuses. But the police intervened and took the teacher into custody.
