Sylhet Bureau :
After being detained on Friday midnight, the police said that Anwar Hossain Sumon, former general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) Sylhet, will be shown arrested in two old cases.
On Saturday, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Sylhet Metropolitan Police Mohammad Saiful Islam said that Sumon’s involvement in provocative activities in the name of the battery rickshaw drivers’ movement in the city and in the vandalism of the Sylhet City Corporation (CCIC) gate and CNG auto-rickshaw has been found. That is why he has been arrested. He will be shown arrested in these two cases under the Speedy Trial Act and sent to court.
The police will take him to court and apply for remand.
On Friday midnight, Sumon was arrested by the police of Jalalabad Police Station in the city from his house in Akhalia Kalibari area. Anwar Hossain Sumon was present at the protest program organized on Tuesday demanding the lifting of the ban on battery-powered auto-rickshaws in Sylhet city, including 11 points.
This member of the current CPB Sylhet district committee’s editorial board is a lawyer by profession. Earlier, on September 27, the police arrested the convener of the BSAD Sylhet district, Abu Zafar, and member secretary Pranab Jyoti Pal, for their involvement in the movement of battery-powered auto-rickshaw drivers.
Later, they were also arrested in the case of vandalism of the CCIC gate and vandalism of a CNG auto-rickshaw. However, both of them are now on bail.
Anwar’s political colleagues allege that the police have taken away this well-known face of progressive politics in Sylhet without charge because of his presence in the movement of battery-powered auto-rickshaw drivers. Between 12 and 12:30 am, the Jalalabad police station picked him up from his home. Earlier, battery-powered autorickshaw drivers protested by blocking the city’s Chowhatta-Zindabazar road from Tuesday afternoon to evening.
Some politicians including Anwar Hossain participated in it. That day, at around 11:30 am, a workers’ rally was organized at the Sylhet Alia Madrasa ground adjacent to the Chowhatta area under the initiative of the Sylhet District Rickshaw-Van-Easybike Workers’ Union with the same demand. At one stage of the protest, a delegation of protesters including Anwar Hossain met with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Abdul Quddus Chowdhury.
After that, the workers suspended the protest until tomorrow, Sunday, setting a deadline of 11 demands, including the lifting of the ban on the movement of battery-powered autorickshaws. The police arrested Anwar Hossain a day before the end of the ultimatum. The police alleged that a third party was fueling the movement of battery-powered autorickshaw drivers. However, the police did not say who this third party was.
At a press conference on Saturday evening, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Abdul Quddus Chowdhury alleged that a third party was fueling the movement of battery rickshaw workers. He said that the battery rickshaw workers were not allowed to hold their Sunday program due to fear of conflict in the opposing programs. It is worth noting that the police started a campaign to stop the movement of battery-powered rickshaws in Sylhet metropolis from the end of last September. In this campaign, initiated by Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Abdul Quddus Chowdhury, many rickshaws were seized and the power connection of several charging points was disconnected. Since then, battery rickshaws are not allowed to operate in the city.
