|  | aStudents and political activists across the country on Monday went out on demonstrations against the just retired chief of army staff, Moeen U Ahmed, burning his effigies and asking the government to put him on trial for violating the constitution by going beyond his professional jurisdiction.
Effigies of the former military chief were burnt on the Dhaka University campus and elsewhere in the capital, and Sylhet and demonstrations were held at district headquarters.
Echoing the sentiment, BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed demanded trial of Moeen along with five other military officers. 'Six military officers, including Moeen, had orchestrated… all designs and work plans to turn Bangladesh into a depoliticised and ineffectual state,' he said at a briefing at his office.
He called on the government to constitute an all-party probe committee for holding the trial as 'they tainted the image of the military' during the emergency rule by trying to implement their own agenda.
The demonstrators asked the government bring charges of 'sedition' against Moeen for breaching the constitution and demanded his exemplary punishment for 'machinations' to impose a prolonged state of emergency withholding basic rights of the people and conspiring to destroy practice of democracy and political institutions.
Students at Dhaka University brought out a procession under the banner of Students' Movement against Repression, a platform backed by Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, associate body of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and held a rally at Aparajeya Bangla where the speakers held Moeen responsible for oppression on the students of the university and elsewhere centring on a trifling matter on August 21, 2007.
The student leaders said Moeen had resorted to repression on students and arrested teachers in a bid to control educational institutions, especially the Dhaka University, which had a glorious history of movement against military rule.
Speakers at the rally also accused Moeen of targeting student leaders and arresting them to silence their voice against the pseudo-military rule.
Many of the students, arrested and tortured by the military in August 2007, were yet to recover from the injuries and trauma, they said. After the rally, the demonstrators burnt an effigy of Moeen.
New Age correspondent in Rajshahi reports: The city and district unit of BNP's associate body of students, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, took out a procession in the city demanding arrest of Moeen 'on charge of sedition.'
Several hundred activists of JCD joined in the procession chanting slogans against Moeen branding him 'an enemy of the people.'
The protesters held a rally on the Rajshahi College campus where speakers held Moeen responsible for unleashing a reign of terror by wholesale arrest of politicians and businessmen.
Chhatra Dal's city unit president Abul Kalam Azad Sweet, general secretary Mahfuzur Rahman Riton and Mahbub Alam Kochi spoke at the rally.
Reports from Khulna said the district and city units of BNP held a rally in front of its office on KD Ghosh Road demanding trial of Moeen U Ahmed for his activities during the two years of the military-controlled interim administration.
Presided over by former BNP lawmaker M Nurul Islam, the rally was addressed by BNP lawmaker Nazrul Islam Monju, former lawmaker Kazi Sekendar Ali Dalim, Syeda Nargis Ali, and senior joint-convener of Khulna district BNP, Shafiqul Alam Mona.
The speakers accused Moeen of hatching conspiracies to destroy BNP, depoliticise the country and banish democracy.
After the rally, the party activists marched down the city streets.
New Age correspondent in Sylhet reports: several hundred students and people paraded the city in a procession chanting slogans against the just retried military chief.
Under the banner of Students-People against Repression, the protest march was organised by the activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal. They burnt an effigy of Moeen at Court Point.
Speakers at a brief rally asked the government to try Moeen and give him exemplary punishment so that nobody in future would dare to violate the constitution.
New Age correspondent in Magura said the district unit BNP in a meeting demanded exemplary punishment of Moeen for breaching the constitution. http://www.newagebd.com/2009/jun/16/front.html |
