President of Workers Party of Bangladesh and former member of parliament Rashed Khan Menon was arrested in Dhaka on August 22, 2024. Menon and the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal party president, Hasanul Haq Inu, have remained in police custody for over three weeks now. – Picture: via Workers Party of Bangladesh
By Abdul Rahman
Presidents of two prominent left parties in Bangladesh have remained in police custody for more than three weeks after their arrests in cases related to the death of quota reform protesters in Bangladesh in July and August.
President of Workers Party of Bangladesh (WPB) and former member of parliament Rashed Khan Menon (81) who was arrested in Dhaka on August 22, and the president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) party, Hasanul Haq Inu (77), who was arrested on August 26, have been sent to police custody by the courts.
Both of them were originally charged in the same case for their alleged involvement in the death of a trader Abdul Wadud in Dhaka’s New Market area during the quota reform protests on July 19.
One of the relatives of the Wadud had filed a case of murder against the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina, Menon, Inu and others on August 21. However, the police have added several other cases of murder against the left leaders since then.
Hasina resigned and left the country in the first week of August in the wake of months-long protests against her government. An interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has taken charge since then. During this government’s first month of rule, it has arrested many former members of Hasina’s cabinet and members of the ruling coalition on charges of murder of protesters.
According to the UN, over 600 people were killed in clashes between the security forces and protesters across the country between July 16 and August 11. The protests for reform in the reservation in government jobs which were going on since June were supported by most of the left parties before turning violent in the middle of July.
Both the WPB and JSD have termed the charges and arrest of their leaders a result of political vendetta, claiming neither Menon nor Inu had any official responsibility in the Hasina government at the time when protests turned violent and people were killed.
Though both the WPB and JSD were parts of Hasina’s Awami League coalition of 14 parties, they were not serving the government in any official capacity. Menon and Inu had served the Hasina government during her previous term between 2014 and 2019, as ministers of civil aviation, tourism and social welfare and minister of information, respectively.
Though Menon was elected as a member of the last parliament dissolved by the interim government in August, Inu contested the elections in January but did not win his seat.
In a statement issued on August 26, JSD called Inu’s arrest arbitrary, claiming his name was added into several police reports without any preliminary inquiry. It demanded the interim government ensure that Inu gets a fair trial.
JSD expressed concerns about the security of the Inu inside prison as a group of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) supporters tried to attack him when he was presented to the magistrate on August 26.
WPB has termed cases against Menon and his arrest acts of political vendetta last month and demanded his unconditional release.
Shazzad Hossain, a member of JSD, told Peoples Dispatch that he and his party expects that “the interim government will ensure all legal rights and physical security in courts and prisons” for Inu. He also expressed hope that the government will keep “the process of Inu’s trial transparent as per the provisions of the constitution and international humanitarian laws.”
This article was first published on Peoples Dispatch
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