Pro-AL, BNP lawyers in scuffles at SC

Staff Reporter  :
Pro-Awami League and Pro-BNP lawyers of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Thursday once again engaged in scuffles while holding processions on the SCBA premises. Office of the SCBA Secretary was vandalised allegedly by the pro-BNP lawyers at that time.

Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, a platform of the pro-BNP lawyers, held a press conference on Thursday at the South Hall of the SCBA regarding the sentence of BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida Rahman in a case filed on charge of amassing wealth through illegal means and concealing information in their wealth statements.

However, pro-Awami League lawyers also appeared there before the starting of the press conference and started making a noise. However, they left the hall in a short time.
The forum took out a procession on the SCBA premises after the press conference. They chanted different slogans demanding resignation of the government.
Meanwhile, pro-Awami League lawyers also took out a procession on the premises to protest the BNP’s activities. When they came in front of the SCBA President and Secretary’s rooms with the procession around 2:30 pm, they faced the pro-BNP lawyers there.

Pro-Awami and pro-BNP lawyers were continuing their slogans at that time. At one point, the chaos turned into a scuffle. Then the pro-BNP lawyers vandalised the room of SCBA Secretary Abdun Nur Dulal. They also removed the nameplates pasted in the Secretary and President’s rooms.
Both the camps of the lawyers are blaming each other for the vandalism. Abdun Nur Dulal alleged that a group of pro-BNP lawyers under the leadership of Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokan, Barrister Kayser Kamal and Advocate Gazi Kamrul Islam Sajal attacked the pro-Awmi League lawyers and vandalised the SCBA office rooms.

Meanwhile, Barrister Kayser Kamal, Secretary General of the Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, said, “After the press conference, we were holding a peaceful procession at the SCBA building. At that time they (pro-Awami lawyers) harassed one of our women lawyers. Pro-Awami lawyers rushed to us when we protested it. At one point, some of their lawyers broke the window of the Secretary’s office.”
Law enforcers visited the spot after the incident.
In the press conference the Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum said that the government has been using the courts to stop the ongoing movement and struggle for restoring democracy by announcing ‘dictated’ verdicts one after another.

After the press conference Barrister Kayser Kamal announce their programs. The organisation will hold black flag procession at all the bar associations of the country on August 6 and will hold sit-in program on August 8 protesting the verdict against Tarique Rahman and Zubaida Rahman.