Habiganj anti-discrimination leader over alleged threat to OC produced before court

Mahdi Hasan, general secretary of the Habiganj district unit of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, has been taken to court nearly 14 hours after his arrest.

He was produced before the Habiganj Judicial Magistrate Court at 8:30 am today, Sunday. At the time, more than a hundred leaders and activists of the organisation were present on the court premises.

Earlier, following Mahdi Hasan’s arrest, more than a hundred leaders and activists of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement staged a sit-in in front of Habiganj Sadar Model Police Station from 7:30 pm on Saturday until 8:00 am today.

They demanded that a court be convened at night to hear Mahdi Hasan’s bail petition. However, as no court session was held at night, he was taken to court this morning.

Habiganj court Police Inspector Aminul Islam told Prothom Alo that Mahdi Hasan was shown arrested in a case filed with Shayestaganj Police Station and was produced before the court. The case accuses him of behaving aggressively with police and obstructing government duties.

It may be mentioned that late Thursday night, police from Shayestaganj Police Station detained Enamul Hasan, vice-president of the Shayestaganj Sadar Union unit of Chhatra League, and took him to the police station.

According to police, Enamul had been continuing activities linked to the politics of the banned Chhatra League. After Enamul Hasan’s detention, leaders and activists of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement surrounded Shayestaganj Police Station on Friday afternoon, demanding his release. At that time, a group of leaders and activists led by Mahdi Hasan occupied the office of the officer-in-charge (OC) of the police station.

A video of a conversation between Mahdi Hasan and the OC later spread on social media. In the circulated video, Mahdi Hasan is heard saying to Shayestaganj Police Station OC Abul Kalam, “Through the July movement, we formed the government.

Here, you are our administration. You have arrested our boys and brought them in, and now you are bargaining with us. You (the OC) said, ‘So what if they are activists?’” At one point, Mahdi Hasan says, “We burned down Baniachong Police Station, and we set fire to SI Santosh. From that position, how dare he (the OC) say this (‘So what if they are activists?’).”