Sohel Taj asks DB chief three questions, gets no answers

Sohel Taj asks DB chief three questions, gets no answers
Former state minister for home affairs Tanjim Ahmad Sohel Taj visited the police detective branch (DB) office to see the six coordinators of the quota reform movement in custody there. However, he was unable to meet them. Nor did he get any definite answer as to when they would be released.

Sohel Taj, son of Bangladesh's first prime minister, at 5:00pm, Monday afternoon visited the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP)'s DB office on Mintoo Road. He remained there for around one and a half hours.
At around 7:30pm when he left the office, he told journalists there that his conscience had driven him to come and inquire about the coordinators of the quota reform movement. He had asked the DMP additional commissioner (DB) Mohammad Harun-ar-Rashid why they had been brought to the DB office, whether they had been arrested, and when they would be released. He did not get a satisfactory answer to any of the questions.

Saying that he had taken three questions to the DB chief, Sohel Taj said, "My first question was, have these coordinators been arrested or kept in safe custody? The second question was, if they have been arrested, I have nothing to say. But if they are in safe custody, then I want to meet them. After consulting senior officials, the DB chief later told me that since these six coordinators were concerned about their safety, they had been kept in safe custody."

Sohel Taj went on to say, "After hearing that, I asked him, 'how do you know that they were concerned about their safety? Did they inform you, request you?' He said, no. They understood they were  being monitored. I said that since they are in safe custody, I want to meet them. I was told that if I wanted to meet them, I would need permission from higher authorities."

"My third question was," said Sohel Taj, "when will the coordinators be released from safe custody? The DB chief replied, they will be released as soon as he gets orders from the higher authorities."
Seven coordinators of the quota reform movement's anti-discrimination platform, including Nahid Islam, are presented in custody of Dhaka Metropolitan Police. Six of them are students of Dhaka University. In the afternoon yesterday, Friday, three of the coordinators, including Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud who were undergoing treatment at the Gonoshashthya Nagar Hospital in the capital, were picked up by DB officers. Over the next two days they picked up the remaining coordinators.

In a video message on Sunday night the six coordinators including Nahid announced withdrawal of their programme. Around the same time the DB chief Harun-ar-Rashid posted a picture on Facebook of him having a meal with these coordinators together at a dining table. The High Court on Monday raised the matter during a hearing, asking, "Who asked you to do all this? Why did you do this? Don't ridicule the nation. You sit and have a meal with whoever you nab."

Many comments appeared on social media following the DB chief's post. Also, many coordinators of the movement gave out statements differing with the announcement made by the six coordinators in custody.
Explaining his visit to the DB office in this context, Sohel Taj said, "Unrest prevails in the country over the quota reform movement. Hundreds of people have been killed. From an innocent five-year-old child to 8-year-old, 10-year-old, 15-year-old, 16-year-old students, and common people have been killed. This has pained us all. It has stirred our conscience. My conscience has driven me to come to the DB office."

Sohel Taj raised a question, saying if a citizen requests for protection, he can be taken into safe custody. But if they are taken into safe custody without requesting, then is this safe custody or arrest?

He said, "The damages that have occurred over this student movement are nothing. No damages are anything. The property that has been damaged has been made with taxpayers' money. But as for the lives that have been lost, can we retrieve a single life? Will these lives return? We must think of the priorities. The cost of a life is far more than billions of taka."

Addressing the law enforcement agencies, Sohel Taj said, "Not a single student should be hit by a bullet any further. Halt this. This is wrong."
When asked by newspersons if the government had handled the situation wrongly, Sohel Taj said, "Extensive solutions that are needed. The first step is independent investigations into each and every killing. Those who are guilty, must be brought before the law. No extrajudicial killing can take place. This problem must be resolved politically. The solution must be reached through discussions with all."

When asked if he had any message for the protestors, he said, "We must not destroy our dreams for the future. This country is yours. You must build the country. Do not lose hope. Good days are ahead, we cannot lose hope. This country is your property. It is for you to build it."