C T Online Desk: At least 52 citizens, including human rights and green activists, in a joint statement on Saturday condemned a recent attack on the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association chief executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan at Akbarshah in Chattogram.
They demanded punishment for the people involved in the incident and bringing the instigators to book through an independent inquiry into the incident, said the statement.
On Thursday, a group of youths allegedly led by Zahurul Islam alias Jashim, councillor of Uttar Pahartali ward under the Chattogram City Corporation attacked and assaulted Rizwana at about 1:30pm when she, along with her team, was visiting a spring, which is claimed to have been filled by razing hills in Lake City residential area.
The attackers allegedly hurled stones at her vehicle and blocked their way until the police freed them later.
The eminent citizens also asked the government to take steps to protect right activists so that no one dares to repeat such incidents, said the statement.
Signatories to the statement included former caretaker government advisers economist Wahiduddin Mahmud, Sultana Kamal, economist Hossain Zillur Rahman, academic Rasheda K Chowdhury and Association for Land Reform and Development chairperson Khushi Kabir, human rights activists Hamida Hossain, former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Mazumder, Ain o Salish Kendra president ZI Khan Panna, economist Debapriya Bhattacharya, Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad general secretary Rana Dasgupta, Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Zafrullah Chowdhury, Supreme Court lawyer Shahdeen Malik, Manusher Jonno Foundation executive director Shaheen Anam, Sujan secretary Badiul Alam Majumder, photographer Shahidul Alam, Dhaka University professor Asif Nazrul and ALRD chief executive Shamsul Huda.
Ain o Salish Kendra in a separate statement also condemned and protested the incident.
