Sadiq Kayem, vice-president of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU), has demanded that the Awami League be banned from politics, at a discussion marking the events of 28 October 2006.
He made the demand as special guest at a discussion titled “28 October 2006: Awami brutality and the rise of fascism”, organised by Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir at the Kazi Nazrul Islam auditorium of the National Press Club on Wednesday afternoon, 28 October. Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general and former MP Professor Mia Golam Parwar was chief guest.
Every year Jamaat and Shibir activists hold programmes demanding justice over the attack on a Jamaat-e-Islami programme in Paltan in the capital on 28 October 2006, the deaths and injuries, and the alleged celebration over the bodies. The two parties say those responsible have never been tried.
The background to 28 October
According to Jamaat and Shibir, their programme in Paltan on 28 October 2006 was attacked by people armed with poles and oars, and several people were killed. Scenes of celebration over the bodies after the clashes drew wide attention in the media. Jamaat and Shibir have since demanded trial and punishment of those responsible. They say that although cases were filed and trials attempted, no effective action was taken against those truly responsible. Every 28 October their activists mark the day with discussions, rallies and other programmes and repeat the demand for justice.
Demand to ban the Awami League
At the discussion Sadiq Kayem said the events of 28 October 2006 were linked to the rise of fascist rule in Bangladesh. In his view, the allegations of brutality on that day are reason enough to ban the Awami League from politics.
Criticising the previous Awami League government, he raised the Pilkhana killings, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and the repression of Islamic scholars, and alleged that authoritarian rule had been established through them. The DUCSU vice-president also claimed that left-wing political forces had helped strengthen that system.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report