'It's disrespectful to put students above us on stage': BNP, Jubo Dal leaders decry 'insult' at Kushtia police event

A Kushtia police-organised event turned tense yesterday (31 May) when district BNP and former Jubo Dal leaders protested what they called a "disrespectful arrangement" after student leaders were given precedence on stage for speech while veteran politicians were asked to sit in front of them, below the stage.

The event was held to mark the resumption of operations at Kushtia Model Police Station, which was recently renovated after being set ablaze on 5 August during the mass uprising. Police officers, local political leaders, and civil society members were in attendance, with Deputy Inspector General of Police (Khulna Range) Rezaul Haq as chief guest.

However, moments of disorder erupted when members of the BNP objected to student leaders — including representatives of the Students Against Discrimination, Jatiya Nagorik Committee and Gono Odhikar Parishad — reportedly delivering speeches that criticised them, reports Prothom Alo.

BNP's Kushtia district Convening Committee member Al Amin Kanai was seen in a video, which has been circulating on social media, expressing outrage, "We risked everything in the movement. We protected the police after 5 August. Now we are not even acknowledged at their programme, while 'two-day-old' students are put on stage to criticise us.

"This is an insult."

Former district Jubo Dal general secretary Kamal Uddin said, "We saved police officers. I personally protected the OC and helped recover looted arms. But at this event, students are on stage and we're sidelined? It's utterly disrespectful."

The protest escalated into a brief scuffle as BNP supporters confronted student leaders, but police and attendees quickly brought the situation under control.

However, speaking to Prothom Alo today (1 June), Jatiya Nagorik Committee's Kumarkhali chapter member Almas Hasan said, "The police invited me as an organiser. I delivered a speech there. I demanded justice for those who, for the last 54 years, have turned the police against the people of this country.

"Is it not my constitutional right to say this?"

Almas further stated, "I told the DIG to go and apologise to the families of the martyrs. Their families should know that it was the police who shot and killed their loved ones."