Amid speculation over the declaration of the July Uprising Proclamation, the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement called on the masses to gather at the Central Shaheed Minar today (31 December) to show support for it.
Although the July Uprising Proclamation will not be declared as earlier planned, the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement will gather at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka to hold a “March for Unity” programme.
The announcement was made around 1:45am.
Announcing the programme, Arif Sohel, member secretary of the organisation, urged the general public to participate.
‘Conspiracies were afoot to stop presentation of proclamation’
Speaking at the event, the platform’s Chief Organiser Hannan Masud said, “We revolutionaries will gather at the central Shaheed Minar as per our previous announcement. The [proclamation] declaration will come from the government, but that will not stop us from gathering.
“Tomorrow at Shaheed Minar, starting from the injured, the family of the martyrs and the residents of Dhaka city will take a stand like 5 August.”
The student movement leader also expressed his platform’s support for the government’s initiative to prepare a proclamation based on national consensus.
“We wanted to declare the proclamation. We went to the government and the political parties to accept the proclamation as it is a historical document,” Hannan said.
He said various obstacles, including foreign and domestic conspiracies, were put in place to stop the presentation of the proclamation, but the interim government had stepped in to put a halt to those.
“But our first victory is that the interim government has agreed to our proclamation,” he said.
Midnight dilemma
Following the government’s announcement, the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement and the National Citizens’ Committee convened discussions regarding their previously announced programme set for 3pm today.
Starting from 10pm yesterday, they held separate meetings at their offices in the capital’s Banglamotor to make decisions on the matter.
Several leaders of the National Citizens’ Committee told TBS that during their meeting, it was decided to suspend the programme at Shaheed Minar. Subsequently, a delegation of the Committee met with the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement to explain the situation.
Sources reported that internal disagreements among the leaders and activists of the two organisations regarding the Shaheed Minar programme escalated into a commotion.
tbs
