Illegally taking quota leaders into custody, making them give statement deceptive, unconstitutional: TIB

Illegally taking the coordinators of the students' quota reform movement into the custody and making them give a statement to declare the withdrawal of their programme is deceptive and unconstitutional, the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said today (29 July).

In a statement, the TIB condemned "the hypocrisy" stating, "Illegally taking the coordinators of the students' quota reform movement into the custody as a weapon to forcefully suppress the movement and to make them read out statement to declare the withdrawal of their programme through a video message is nothing but outright false, flagrant deception, and unconstitutional."

The TIB said, "In order to justify human rights violations such as large-scale killings, detentions, and unjust actions carried out by law enforcement agencies, as well as to suppress the movement, the government, ruling party, state-run institutions, and the Detective Branch employed false narratives that are self-destructive, anti-people, and cruel theatrics which people have no reason to trust."

"According to media reports, in Dhaka alone over 200 cases have been filed indiscriminately against more than 2.13 lakh people under different police stations in the capital in connection with violence in the movement. Mass arrests are going on by law enforcement agencies. Human rights violations are occurring while individuals are subjected to mass arrests and harassment," said TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman. 

He said, "Although the arrest drive in different areas was to ensure accountability of only those responsible for the violences, media reports inform that students, professionals, and common people are being arrested arbitrarily. Even incidents like arrests of juveniles of 13 to 17 years of age, along with the general people who were not involved in the violence, have taken place. These are clear violations of the citizens' rights enshrined in the Constitution. At the same time, there are allegations of inhumane torture after abductions or arrest, ignoring the clear direction of the High Court, which is a blatant violation of human rights. Reminding the law enforcement agencies of their constitutional and professional duties, we want to call upon them to come out of the path of such violations and harassment of people if there is even a minimum respect for their identity as the protectors of the law, not violators."

He further said "it is unethical and an abhorrent crime to force the coordinators of the movement" to read out a statement in a video message to give up protests while under detention following abductions in the DB headquarters in the ridiculous pretext of 'providing safety'. 

He added, "From what we have seen on the media, there are sufficient grounds to be concerned that the coordinators were under duress after abduction and torture under detention. All these represent a professional bankruptcy of lying to the public and attempting to mislead them. Moreover, there is no legal basis for 'abduction or detention for safety'. Abducting and detaining students for their role in a fully non-political and peaceful movement for genuine rights is a clear violation of Article 33 of the constitution. Similarly, coercing the coordinators to call off protests by reading out a statement is a violation of the Article 35(4) of the constitution. It is not baseless to surmise that such unconstitutional measures are being taken to forcibly deprive the students of their right to dissent and cover up the unprecedented use of force to control protests."

Dr Iftekharuzzaman further stated that the government, while trying to suppress the protests, has been resorting to lies since the very beginning in order to legalise the unaccountable activities including internet shutdowns. 

He added, "It is clear that the government failed to comprehend a completely apolitical, peaceful protest and pushed it towards violence by applying force and giving a chance to the state agencies to abuse power. Actions that violate the constitutional rights of citizens, including mass arrests, arbitrary cases, block raids, abductions, tortures, harassment of citizens, and use of fake narratives to justify the same must stop."