Left student orgs at DU protest arrest of Prothom Alo journo

Members of left student organisations at Dhaka University protest the arrest of journo Shams under DSA. Collected from Facebook via UNB

Dhaka, March 30 - Left leaning student organisations held a rally, protesting the arrest of Prothom Alo journalist Samsuzzaman Shams.

The rally was held at the base of Anti-terrorism Raju Memorial Sculpture of Dhaka University where activists from different units of Chhatra Union and other left leaning student organisations joined in around 5:30 pm on Wednesday.

As a symbolic protest, demonstrators covered their mouths with black cloth.

On behalf of the protesters, vice president of Chhatra Union, Meghmollar Bosu, said, "It is too late to protest. You know that a journalist of Prothom Alo, Samsuzzaman Shams, has been arrested by law enforcers."

"Journalism is not a crime. Then why did they arrest Shams? We are living in a country where we can't call a spade a spade. When someone raises his voice against people's misery, against corruption, he becomes a target. Some other media then starts trying to prove the fallacy of such reports, but they do not report crimes like money laundering, corruption and mismanagement in different sectors," he added.

Demanding release of Shams, the protestors said, irrespective of political background it is now time to fight against this. Later, they formed a procession which marched around TSC area to National Museum. - UNB