18 April 2021 | The NewAge
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Sixty eight eminent citizens of the country in a joint statement on Saturday said that they were outraged by the news of police killing five workers by opening fire on a peaceful demonstration of the workers at the Banshkhali power plant.
The statement said that the workers were demonstrating for their arrears and opening fire on their peaceful demonstration was a shameful act which went against the rule of law.
The statement accused the police, who are responsible for the protection of the citizens, of abusing their power by opening fire on such a demonstration.
Neither the Constitution nor any laws permit the police to open fire on workers under any circumstances, said the statement.
The Police Regulations of 1943 directs the police to exercise minimum force as a last resort for dispersing a gathering that may threaten public security and fire could not be opened unless warnings were issued several times beforehand, said the statement.
The aim of opening fire is not to kill but to disperse the gathering, said the statement. The statement demanded a judicial probe into the incident and punishment of the perpetrator police personnel.
The statement said that the pandemic made life already difficult and not paying workers their arrears constituted offense under the labour law. The statement demanded an investigation into why S Alam Group did not pay the workers at the plant.
The statement also demanded cancellation of the contract signed between S Alam Group and the government for building the coal-fired power plant at Banshkhali.
The statement was signed, among others, by Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Zafrullah Chowdhury, adviser to a former caretaker government Sultana Kamal, Professor Anu Muhammad, BRAC executive chairman Hossain Zillur Rahman, Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman, photographer Shahidul Alam, women’s rights activist Farida Akhtar, writer Rahnuma Ahmed, human rights activist Nur Khan, Professor Asif Nazrul, lawyers Sara Hossain and Syeda Rizwana Hasan, and former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder.
Besides, Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan, Bangladesh Sramik Kalyan Federation, Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad Ganasamhati Andolan, Bangladesh Biplobi Sramik Sanghati and Socialist Students’ Front in separate statements condemned the murders of five workers and demanded a judicial probe into the murders.
They said that the government continued to use police force for suppressing rightful demands. They recalled the 2016 incident in which four villagers in Banshkhali were shot dead during a protest against the acquisition of land for building the power plant.
They demanded compensation to the families of the slain workers, treatment of the injured ones and realisation of the workers’ demands for which they were demonstrating.
Progressive Students Alliance, a platform of left-leaning students’ organisations, on Saturday held a procession on the campus protesting at the killings of the workers at Banshkhali in Chittagong, reported DU correspondent.
Ignoring the ongoing restrictions on movement, the procession broke out from the Teacher-Student Centre on Dhaka University campus on Saturday at about 5:00pm.
The protesters chanted slogans against the government for the killings of the workers.
After marching through different streets of the campus, they held a protest rally at the base of the Anti-terrorism Raju Memorial.
Bangladesh Students Union central vice-president Nazir Amin Joy and joint secretary of DU unit Ragib Nayeem, among others, attended the procession.
Source: https://www.newagebd.net/article/135652/banshkhali-workers-killing-draws-protests