Forty-eight distinguished citizens and professionals from different fields have criticized the verdict against Adilur Rahman Khan, secretary of the Odhikar rights group, and ASM Nasiruddin, director of the organization, demanding their immediate release.
It comes as a Dhaka court on Thursday pronounced a two-year jail sentence for the duo on charge of publishing a fact-finding report on Odhikar’s website about the number of deaths during the police drive against Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh activists at Shapla Chattar in Dhaka in May 5-6, 2013.
Also, both were fined Tk10,000 each.
“We are deeply concerned over the jailing of the two top officials of Odhikar, who had long been gathering, investigating, and publishing information at the local and international level on enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and other violations of human rights,” the eminent citizen said in a statement on Friday.
“We reckon the verdict will hamper the practice of ensuring basic human rights while discouraging rights activists,” the statement adds.
“We demand that Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin be released at the earliest. We also urge the government to provide all rights activists with safety and want the harassment against them to be ended,” it ends.
Among the signatories to the statement are Hossain Zillur Rahman, Ali Imam Majumder, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Prof Anu Muhammad, CR Abrar, Shahdeen Malik and Nur Khan Liton.
