Alik Mree has resigned as the National Citizen Party’s (NCP) joint chief organizer for the northern region, accusing the party of staying silent over the violent protests and shootings in Khagrachhari that left three people dead.
A young member of the Garo community, Alik Mree was the sole representative of a small ethnic group on the NCP central committee.
In announcing his resignation, he referred on Facebook to remarks made by NCP leader Abdul Hannan Masud and accused those remarks of falsehood.
The unrest in Khagrachhari erupted around allegations that an indigenous minor girl had been gang-raped.
In a post on his verified Facebook account shortly after 11:15am on Monday, Alik Mree wrote that he had sent his resignation to the party’s email and to the officials responsible at party headquarters in protest against NCP’s silence over the rape, the attacks on indigenous people, arson at their homes and the killing of three indigenous persons and against what he called the falsehoods of NCP leader Abdul Hannan Masud.
He added: I hereby resign from my post as NCP central joint chief organizer (northern region) I wish the party well Inquilab Zindabad.
Speaking to Prothom Alo about his resignation, Alik Mree said a statement had been issued on the party’s Khagrachhari page regarding the Friday incident.
In that statement, the headline did not mention the rap,e and it condemned attacks on law enforcement and the damage to their vehicles.
He said he had asked for a response about this statement in the party’s group and later followed up by email but had received no reply by the following morning.
He added that at a recent event, NCP leader Abdul Hannan Masud had called the Khagrachhari rape a hoax and that this remark compelled him to resign.
