Bangladesh: Protest continues after death of writer Mushtaq

Police barricade a rally of Processive Left Alliance near Bangladesh Secretariat on Monday.- Sourav Lasker

Protests continued for the fourth day on Monday following the death of writer Mushtaq Ahmed in custody after being held in pre-trial detention for nine months.

Hundreds of leaders and activists of Progressive Students Alliance marched towards home ministry in the afternoon demanding a trial for what they claimed is the killing of Mushtaq in jail.

The protesters also demanded the scrapping of the Digital Security Act and the release of all prisoners, including cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, detained under the act.

The protesters brought their rally from Raju Memorial Sculpture on the Dhaka University campus around 12:00 pm and marched towards Bangladesh Secretariat.

Police barricaded them with a barbed wire fence near Sikha Bhabhan but they broke it off and continued their march.

Police stopped them again near the office of the Bangladesh Power Development Board, where an argument ensued between the protesters and police officers present at the spot.

As police prevented them from moving further, protesters started holding a meeting near the BPDB office.

Bangladesh Chhatra Union general secretary Dipak Shil, Bangladesh Chhatra Federation president Golam Mostafa and Somajtantrik Chhatra Front president Masud Rana spoke among others at the gathering.

Different political, rights and student organisations had been protesting the death of Mushtaq since Friday.

Mushtaq, who was detained in May and was later charged under DSA for spreading rumour in social media, was declared dead at a hospital in central Gazipur district on Thursday, hours after he fell unconscious at a high-security jail.

New Age