Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) strongly condemns the vicious assault carried out by Police on the peaceful procession of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports. The onslaught has wounded about fifty demonstrators including renowned Economist Dr. Anu Muhammad.

According to published sources, the National Committee, a citizen’s group, held a meeting at Muktangan in the capital on 2nd September as a part of their scheduled event to besiege Petrobangla head office demanding the cancellation of the proposed oil and gas exploration deals in the Bay of Bengal. At the end of the meeting, as the demonstrators started their march towards the Petrobangla head office at Karwan Bazar, the rally came under attack by the Police force at Bijoynagar and Dr. Anu Muhammad along with fifty other demonstrators were the victims of unrestrained police brutality.

It is the fundamental right of every citizen to stage peaceful demonstration and express their opinion. Ever since the present government came to power, many of its responsible representatives have been saying that the police force shall behave in a fair and responsible manner. We want to see these words properly realized in action. The Ministry of Home Affairs has already condemned the incident. But condemnation alone does not relieve an elected democratic government of its duties. All necessary enquiries must be made and the government must take necessary action towards those who are behind this atrocity in order to prevent such barbaric incidents from happening in the future.