DEMAND FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF
PROFESSOR NIM CHANDRA BHOWMICK AND OTHER INNOCENT ARRESTEES

Professor Nim Chandra Bhowmick of Dhaka Universityis a valiant freedom fighter and progressive movement & human rights leader of Bangladesh. The talent Professor Bhowmick has been brilliant all through his student life, student & youth politics, professional career and social & humanitarian movement. By dint of his excellent capability, he secures the top position as the think tank & policy maker everywhere he walks through. His appointment in top most positions has glorified those. A PhD holder Dr. Bhowmick is the Professor of Applied Physics in the Dhaka University. Being a solar energy expert, professionally he held the positions of Chairman of

Applied Physics Department, Director of Solar Energy Plant and Provost of Jagannath Hall of the DU. As a social & human rights front-line leader, he has been holding the position of General Secretary of the central committee of Bangladesh Hindu, Bouddha Christan Oikya Parishad (BHBCOP) (Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council) for several years. Apart from these, he is associated with many other social, humanitarian and cultural organizations. 

However, it is a matter of the deepest sorrow and anxiety that Professor Nim Chandra Bhowmick has been sent & put into the Dhaka Central jail since September 18, 2007. In fact, Professor Bhowmick was bound to surrender to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Dhaka on this day. Because the Bangladesh Police filed case, submitted charge sheet, issued arrest warrant and declared seizure of all his immovable and movable wealth, if he was absconding, or did not surrender to the authority. The charges against him brought were initiating and provocation of the recent student agitation took place in the DU campus on 20 - 22 August 2007, which was further spread over the other educational campuses all over the country. It is worthwhile to point out here that the student agitation started first on 20 August 2007 upon an incident took place at the DU playground between few army personnel and a group of DU students. The present caretaker government (CG) of Bangladesh had to impose curfew on 22 September 2007 in order to control the agitation, which was withdrawn upon the situation became to normalcy. 

That was not the end of the story, since the CG took the issue seriously and filed cases against thousands of anonymous agitators including teachers and students of the DU and few other universities. However, the police could in particular produce names of few teachers and students in their first information report (FIR) in which the name of Professor Bhowmick was not included. His name was included while the charge sheet was submitted. Here the secret exists behind that the invisible clue alias the ill motive of the law enforcement agencies to sue Professor Bhowmick. This suspect must be grown due to the following fact sheet: 

a. Professor Nim Chandra Bhowmick was not present in the University teacher's meeting in which

the decision was made to support the student protest (against ill-treatment of the DU students); 

b. Professor Bhowmick was not even present in rally that the University teachers/professors held

the following day; and 

c. He is no longer the Provost of the Jagannath Hall (a DU residential students' hostel where he served as the Provost for last few years) and thus has very less direct contact with students other than academic issues. These are proven and the video footage tells the absolute truth finding no presence of Professor Bhowmick in any event organized and took place on those aforesaid days. Then the following questions must be arisen: 

(i) Why was not Professor Bhowmick's name included in the FIR?

(ii) What are the clues that police found to submit charge sheet against him? 

One must expect answers to these questions to the CG who claims fair play to all; else, there could

be declining face value and image of the CG, not only at home, but also across the oceans.

Because, based on the above fact sheet, it is worthwhile to argue that the act of implicating

Professor Bhowmick or including him on the charge sheet is totally based on unfounded, false information and thus, ill-motivated. A soft spoken & polite in nature, in his entire career of rights movement he never believed in violence as a means. 

Thus, is it firmly believed that the last minute inclusion of the General Secretary of the BHBCOP in the charge sheet is nothing, but the act of the Islamic fundamentalists & terrorists who have been performing seamlessly in order to transform the once secular Bangladesh into a monolithic Islamic state by decimating the secular Muslims and eliminating the country's 25 millions of Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and indigenous populations. The fanatic islamic forces who were the “collaborators” during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, or the who clearly wields tremendous influence on the ruling Caretaker Government, taking advantage of the Western world's generosity of allowing “everyone” in the democratic process, has obviously been trying to crush the minority rights movement, which Professor Bhowmick has been leading since its inception. Again, this religious tickle has become a natural phenomenon in today's Bangladesh. 

As such, the secularist and democratic forces in Bangladesh and around the globe must come forward vowing to do whatever it may take to foil this vicious attempt of the Islamists. On this way, right at this moment, the following demands must be shouted: 

1. Professor Nim Chandra Bhowmick and all other innocent university professors & students who were arrested or surrendered in charge of August 20 - 22 incident must be released immediately. 

2. All cases filed against Professor Nim Chandra Bhowmick and all other innocent university professors & students must be withdrawn immediately. 

Last, but not the least, while the Government of Bangladesh recently has declared the release upon the incidents of last August in the DU campus, then why not now and immediately the order has been given and why the seemingly camera trial is ongoing regularly? We shout immediately release of all of them.