Politicians, academics and online activists have criticised the government’s decision to ban all political rallies for a month.
The Communist Party of Bangladesh President Mujahidul Islam Selim and Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal General Secretary Khalequzzaman yesterday issued a joint statement demanding a withdrawal of the ban on rallies and public meetings by political parties.
The government has no right to curb people’s rights using Jamaat-Shibir and Hefazat as an excuse, the statement said.
Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal General Secretary Sharif Nurul Ambia said he found the home minister’s statement banning rallies “puzzling”.
Awami League’s ally Jatiya Party will make a public statement on its position about the issue today, the party’s presidium member Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Jatiya Swarthwye Blogger Online Activists Forum, a social media activists’ organisation, staged a demonstration protesting the ban yesterday evening at Shahbagh intersection.
Protesters at the demonstration said the decision proved that the government was negotiating with “evil forces” and trying to foil the mass movement against war criminals of 1971.
Rajshahi University professor Selim Reza Newton, Jatiya Swarthwye Blogger OnlineActivist Forum coordinator Parvez Alam, blogger and former Bangladesh Students Union president Baki Billah and Ganasanghati Andolon central leader Abul Hasan Rubel, among others, spoke at the demonstration.
