Pod: Military crackdown on students and teachers
Reposted from E-Bangladesh
Podcast by Tasneem Khalil: Military crackdown on university students and teachers in Bangladesh. With an interview with M Sanjeeb Hossain, son of Professor Anwar Hossain. Professor Anwar Hossain is now believed to be in DGFI custody.
[Rush transcript/elements.]
A brutal military crackdown is on against thousands of university teachers and students in Bangladesh. Members of Bangladesh army led by major or captain-ranking officers are raiding residences of students and teachers who in the last few days started protesting against the current state of emergency in Bangladesh and demanded withdrawal of army and police from all the campuses.
We are receiving disturbing details of these raids from Dhaka and elsewhere.
In one incident, as the BBC Bangla service reported, platoons of army members entered a residential-cum-commercial complex near Dhaka University searching for students. Each and every apartment was searched and all the students residing in the building were taken to the landing area where they were mercilessly beaten up by soldiers in wide public view. After that, they were tied up and driven away in army trucks to an unknown destination.
We received an email from Dhaka and I am going to quote from that: “Two brothers, both university students were found in one of the apartments. Their father and mother begged the army not to take them away as they were not involved in any kind of protest. At one stage, soldiers broke their arms and knees with rifle butts, right in front of their parent’s eyes. And later took one of them away because the condition of the other was very serious.”
Another message in a Bangla blog says, “Students of Dhaka University. They are looking for you. Please go and hide somewhere where no one can recognize you as a student. Please don’t ask me why is this happening. Just go, just hide.”
We are receiving similar reports of army torture on students and teachers from all over the country.
Military has detained 5 university professors: General Secretary of Dhaka University Teachers Association Professor Anwar Hossain, Dean of the Social Sciences Department in Dhaka University Professor Harun-or-Rashid, former vice chancellor of Rajshahi University Professor Saidur Rahman Khan, Convener of Rajshahi University Progressive Teachers Society Professor Abdus Sobhan and Rajshahi University management Professor Moloy Kumar Bhowmik.
[Interview with M Sanjeeb Hossain]
Professor Anwar Hossain picked up by men claiming to be the “joint forces.” Team included commandos trained in USA. Not produced to court, no cases, picked up for interrogation. Brigadier General ATM Amin, DGFI, met DU professors hours before the pick up.E-Bangladesh has received information from sources close to the military headquarters in Dhaka that Professor Anwar Hossain and his college Professor Harun-or-Rashid are right now in the custody of DGFI, the military intelligence agency. They are detained in a torture-cum-detention facility inside the DGFI headquarters in Dhaka cantonment. However, we are not able to verify this from an official or independent source.
posted in Current Affairs | 1 Comment
Someone wrote in a blog recently that the teachers and students have become the new Muktijodhdhas of Bangladesh and the army are the new Rajakars! Interesting way of looking at things. Bangladesh er pothay pothay army hete berachchay, how sad and scary is that?!