Five coordinators of the anti-discrimination student movement were arrested by police on Saturday while extorting money from the house of Awami League leader and former MP Shammi Ahmed in the capital's Gulshan area. As a result,
three organizations formed by students are facing questions.
Those arrested on charges of extortion are Ibrahim Hossain Munna, Md. Sakadaun Siam, Sadab, Aminul Islam and Abdur Razzak bin Sulaiman Riyad. Police say they went to Shammi Ahmed's house and demanded a bribe of Tk 50 lakh and accepted Tk 10 lakh. They were arrested by police on Saturday while trying to bring the rest of the money.
When the police produced them in court on Sunday, the court granted them a 7-day remand each. After this incident, the anti-discrimination student movement permanently expelled them from their organization. Along with this, the mastermind behind the removal of Sheikh Hasina has canceled all committees except the central committee.
Each one has occupied different places in the name of coordinator. They are extorting and occupying in the name of coordinator. Why will July be a 'money making machine', commented a coordinator named Umama Fatema. She also recently resigned from the organization. In her words, "After becoming a spokesperson, I am discovering that many people are doing many things with it. They are trading in tenders and lobbying, DC appointments. These are going on all the time. I had no idea about it before. Why should July be a money making machine? Unfortunately, that has happened. Many have looted hundreds of crores of taka in these few months."
Dhaka University teacher Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah commented that some extorting opportunists in the name of coordinators and coordinators are establishing a reign of terror in Dhaka city. He said, "The Banani incident may have come to the fore now. But the incidents in Uttara, Dhaka are not coming to the fore. Noman, the coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement in that area, has opened an extortion office in a building called SM Plaza. Occupancy, extortion, and illegal activities are happening one after another. The illegal activities were carried out by the legally elected committee of Kalyan Samiti No. 7. Now the committee is under his control. A journalist was illegally evicted from house No. 59, Sonargaon Janpath Road, Sector No. 7. He was forcibly evicted by calling him a man of fascist Sheikh Hasina and an agent of India, whose leadership and mastermind were Noman and an extortionist named "Obaidur Mama". The journalist filed two GDs in Uttara Paschim Police Station in this incident. But the police did not cooperate with him." The teacher said that not only the capital Dhaka but also the people of Bangladesh are rising up against the coordinators. He said, "The same discrimination coordinators have started the same discrimination that led to Sheikh Hasina's expulsion. The incident in Banani in the capital is a blatant example of this."
Several leaders of the National Citizens Party (NCP) have come into the spotlight in the past few months for various incidents. Joint Member Secretary Gazi Salauddin Tanvir was temporarily suspended from the party in April.
In addition, another NCP leader, Abdul Hannan Masud, came into the spotlight after he released the detainees from the police station after a mob attack on a house in Dhanmondi in Dhaka by posing as a coordinator. He was also suspended from the party in May after that incident.
Earlier, since August last year, various allegations of power display, extortion, and lobbying in the name of coordinator have been coming from all over the country.
In September last year, a case was filed after a youth posing as a coordinator in Savar was handed over to the police after being mobbed. He went to a house with his team to search it and demanded extortion.
Police arrested the alleged coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement in Feni in a case filed in December last year on charges of fraud, extortion and defamation. He had demanded a ransom of three lakh taka from the principal of a madrasa.
A video and audio record of a leader of this platform in Rangpur demanding a ransom of one lakh taka in March was leaked on social media.
In April this year, four students were arrested by the public on charges of extortion after entering a house in Khulna city under the guise of a detective police-DB and coordinator and handed them over to the police.
Crime expert and Dhaka University teacher Dr. Touhidul Haque said that many of the forces supporting the coup have been involved in such processes as extortion, squatting, and bribery. He said that the three organizations they formed, such as the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, NCP and Bangladesh Democratic Student Union, are facing questions from the people of the country.
He said that the impact of the organizational system is not visible. Taking organizational measures with prior understanding will not bring any change. If strict legal measures are not taken, the tendency to commit crimes using political identities will increase.
According to him, most of the complaints that are coming or what is being heard from people are not taken seriously. As a result, he believes that some are taking advantage of it to create mischief behind or inside, no matter what they say.
