The Bangladesh Sramik Kalyan Federation strongly condemned and protested the mass arrest of labor leaders and activists from all over the country on the occasion of the mass meeting held in Dhaka.
In a joint statement today, Federation President former MP ANM Shamsul Islam and General Secretary Advocate Atiqur Rahman said that it is the constitutional right of every citizen to attend meetings. The police have been harassing and mass arresting the leaders and activists coming to the rally by setting up check posts along the way to implement the political agenda of the ruling government. Many activists have not been arrested yet. As a result, we do not know what their condition is.
The leaders called for the unconditional release of the arrested labor activists. They said that the current government has established a dictatorial regime in the country. Today, democracy in the country is confined to paper. The rule of law and human rights have been undermined. Administrative machinery is being blatantly used to perpetuate one-party rule. The constitutional and fundamental rights of people have been taken away. The people of the country want freedom from this dictatorial chain. When people forgot their party affiliation and took to the streets to establish democracy and voting rights, law enforcement agencies at the behest of the government arrested numerous activists and ordinary people from the streets on various false pretexts.
Not only here, raids have been conducted on various houses and hotels in Dhaka and arrested people seeking services. But at the same time, the leaders and activists of the ruling government have been allowed to enter Dhaka without any kind of obstacles. We condemn this dual policy of police administration.
We have repeatedly told the police administration in the past that they are a state force run by public tax money. They are not loyal to any government or party. However, we see some members of the police trying to curry favor with the government. We would like to say clearly to the police administration that you should play a neutral role in the establishment of democratic governance in the country. Unconditionally release all prisoners including 31 leaders and activists of Sramik Kalyan Federation.
