Incidents of stripping, assaulting at Dhanmondi 32 constitute human rights violations: Sarjis Alam

Those who occurred incidents from stripping people to assaulting them at Dhanmondi 32 and elsewhere in Dhaka have violated human rights, said Sarjis Alam, one of the coordinators of Students Against Discrimination, Friday.

He said, “Many unwanted incidents took place in various places of Dhaka including Dhanmondi 32 that do not go with the spirit of our mass uprising, and these are in no way lawful either.”

Sarjis Alam also made it clear to the students, “The Students Against Discrimination has no authority. They are a pressure group.”

He made the remarks while speaking to journalists on the Ekushey Hall premises at Dhaka University on Friday.

Sarjis Alam further said, “In viral videos, a man of my father’s age was seen being forced to do sit-ups and people are hurling abuses at him; some people were seeing checking others’ mobile phones; a woman of my mother’s age was also seen being assaulted; we also witnessed attacks on journalists, and numerous such unwanted incidents took place.

“Our revolution was against the 16 years of torture and oppression, infringement of freedom of speech, as well as corruption and suppression. We have wanted such a Bangladesh where everyone will speak freely, express their opinions irrespective of their ideologies and work accordingly – these freedoms will exist. Yesterday we saw some images where students had their involvement. We do not know what ideology they belong to and we will not define them either,“ he added.

Saying that all of the Students Against Discrimination sat together on Thursday night, Sarjis Alam added, “We have clarified that we are trying to find out whether any of our coordinators or co-coordinators is involved in these incidents anywhere in Bangladesh, and if the involvement of any coordinator or co-coordinate is found, we will expel them from the team immediately. Those who did the acts like stripping and assaulting people have violated human rights. These are in no way lawful. Our second decision is that the Students Against Discrimination as a pressure group will do whatever is necessary to take legal action against those people. We have two student representatives in the government and we will try to ensure justice through them.”

Sarjis Alam said, "We are giving a clear message that we cannot prevent anyone who wants to place flowers at Dhanmondi 32 on 15 August to mourn someone. Whenever someone came to power in independent Bangladesh, only their supreme persons were shown respect and the rest were demeaned, let alone show honour. Those who deserve respect as per their place in history did not receive it."

"While speaking about the history of Bangladesh it is undeniable that everyone will be remembered as per their contributions. None must be demeaned intentionally and politically. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman must be given respect as much as he deserves; similarly, the respect that Ziaur Rahman deserves must be given too. When damaging activities are committed out of political vengeance after such a mass uprising, we never support this from our places. If anyone from us did these activities, let us boycott them.”

Replying to a query, Sarjis Alam said, “Bangabir Abdul Kader Siddique went to Dhanmondi 32 and his vehicle was vandalised. Why? If he believes in that political ideology, he can go there with flowers. We cannot prevent him. Rather if we think the political ideology that he believes, and the person he follows are not followable, we can boycott them. But nobody gives us the authority to attack his vehicles or assault him. We have been saying everywhere on behalf of the Students Against Discrimination that what is fair and just must be implemented.”

Sarjis Alam gave several messages to students on behalf of Students Against Discrimination.

He said, “Our message is clear whenever police, traffic police or law enforcement agency members arrive, students must hand over the responsibility and leave. You must return to classes and educational institutions.”

Sarjis Alam clarified, “Students Against Discrimination promotes nothing like that someone will search in a hostel or resident hotel or oust professors from their chair. We do not support this. We are no authority. We are a pressure group. We can raise voices for ousting corrupts and power abusers, but we cannot force them to do so.”

Saying that a large group of opportunists has become fake coordinators or co-coordinators, Sarjis Alam added they have formed committees at various places. “We even heard that a committee has been formed at Uttara 12 and that committee directed the local mosque committee to resign. However, we only constituted committees at universities and educational institutions. These people are carrying out some acts for their personal and police gains and that is unwanted, and we will decide on this platform after the interim government reaches a stable position.”