14 Secretariat employees suspended over allowance protest
Among those suspended are Badiul Kabir, president of the Secretariat Officers and Employees United Council, and its vice-presidents Shahin Golam Rabbani and Nazrul Islam
The government has suspended 14 employees for their alleged involvement in protests demanding a "Secretariat allowance".
The suspension orders were issued through separate notifications by the respective ministries on 15 December, following a court's acceptance of the charge sheet in cases filed against the employees, according to the officials from the relevant ministries.
Among those suspended are Badiul Kabir, president of the Secretariat Officers and Employees United Council, and its vice-presidents Shahin Golam Rabbani and Nazrul Islam.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Others placed under suspension include Md Taiful Islam, Bikash Chandra Roy, Islamul Haque, Md Mohsin Ali, Roman Gazi and Abu Belal from the Ministry of Health; Mizanur Rahman Sumon from the information ministry; Kamal Hossain and Md Alimuzzaman from the Ministry of Public Administration; Bipul Rana Biplob from the Ministry of Finance; and Nasirul Haque from the Cabinet Division.
On 12 December, a Dhaka court placed 14 people, including Badiul Kabir and Shahin Golam Rabbani, on five days' remand each in a case filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act at Shahbagh Police Station.
They were allegedly staging rallies, meetings and demonstrations demanding a "Secretariat allowance" and confining the finance adviser.
On 10 December, secretariat employees confined Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed inside the Secretariat for nearly seven hours to press their demand for the "Secretariat allowance." Later, with police assistance, Salehuddin returned home. The protesters withdrew their programme around 8:30pm after receiving "assurance" of a government order (GO).
However, when the government did not issue the notification by 3pm on 11 December, they gathered at the Secretariat again and continued chanting slogans.
At the rally, they also announced plans to begin a "full-day work abstention" from the following week.
Police initially detained five protesters from the Secretariat and took them into custody, later increasing the number to 14.
