Parents of the Bangladesh University of Engineering (Buet) students who were arrested in the Tanguar Haor area of Taherpur upazila in Sunamganj on Sunday and sent to jail on Monday have claimed that their children are not involved in any kind of anti-state activities.
“Our children are not involved in any kind of conspiracy. They are not involved in politics. We are concerned about who is behind this conspiratorial effort and for what purpose. We demand their immediate release,” they said at a press conference held at the Buet Shaheed Minar on Tuesday.
Ali Ahsan Junayed, the brother of one of the arrested students, Ali Ammar Muaj, read out a written statement on behalf of the parents at the press conference.
A total of 34 students, including 24 Buet students, were arrested on charges of conspiring against the government.
Police said the students were members of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Shibir. They were allegedly plotting a conspiracy against the government.
Police also claimed that these students gathered in the haor area under the leadership of Afif Anwar, the Baitulmal (finance) secretary of the Buet branch of Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir.
"On Saturday, the students, some are our children, some are our brothers, went to tour Tanguar Haor in Sunamganj with their campus friends. At one stage of the trip, police detained them on Sunday, and we could not reach them on their phones. Later, we learned that the police had taken all of them to Taherpur police station. We repeatedly called the officer-in-charge (OC) and the superintendent of police (SP), but neither of them received our calls, so we were unable to find out why they had been detained,” Ali Ahsan Junaid said.
"They called for pictures of their National ID cards, but the guardians did not know they had been arrested. Yesterday, we learned that a case had been filed against them under the Anti-Terrorism Act, alleging they went there to plot a conspiracy against the government. We believe such ridiculous and fabricated allegations are malicious and full of bad intentions. We have also repeatedly called Buet's vice-chancellor (VC), but we have not been able to communicate with anyone,” he said.
"Last night, a few of us guardians met the vice-chancellor. We met the Directorate of Students' Welfare (DSW) director there and informed him about the whole matter. He told us that the police also informed them yesterday evening. We are alarmed and have made our children aware of the threat to their education and careers. We have requested the university authorities for cooperation, and they have assured us they will try according to their procedures," he added.
Sunamganj Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Abu Sayed issued a statement to the media regarding the arrests.
The statement includes information that, during a search of the arrested individuals at the incident site, authorities recovered 33 mobile phones of various models, copies of screenshots related to Islami Chhatra Shibir’s activities, promotional material related to the Islami Chhatra Shibir's welfare fund, study material for members and associates on the Quran and Hadith, and documents related to employee declarations.
Regarding the media statement, Ali Ahsan Junaid responded: "I want to clarify one thing, the recovery of many items from them as confiscated goods is extremely laughable and clearly fabricated. The accusation that someone would go to Tanguar Haor to plot destruction is also ludicrous. Later, when meeting with the students, they clarified that nothing was found on their mobiles and in their possession, and those items were collected in front of them as confiscated goods and were downloaded from the internet and printed to fabricate the case."
