Press Release

Arresting Hizb ut Tahrir Activist Merely for Giving a Public Speech inside a Bus shows ‘Freedom of Speech’ can only be Used to Defame Islam, but Not to Expose the Fallacy of Democracy

On 22 February (2017), a strong courageous activist of Hizb ut Tahrir named Sajid bin Alam, third year student of Mass Communication and Journalism in Dhaka University (DU), was forcefully taken away by a dozen thugs of Bangladesh Chatra League (BCL) from a mosque inside his university campus while he was performing Asr prayer. With the help of the DU proctor, they then handed him over to the Shahbag police station. Since then Sajid was kept in a secret dungeon for about a week by the notorious counter terrorism unit of Bangladesh Police without having disclosed his whereabouts until they produced him at court this week. And what a disgrace that the proctor has brought upon himself and his profession! We wonder what could make a teacher in such a dignified position to become someone trustworthy for a thuggish political group like BCL!

Sajid’s crime was that he was a sincere activist of Hizb ut Tahrir, and unlike Chatra League, he was not involved in hooliganism, hijacking or in any other political violence. The only reason to get him detained and tortured by this cruel regime was his involvement in a two weeks long (from 05 – 20^th February 2017) successful Popular Contact campaign done by Hizb ut Tahrir on the futility of Election Commission reconstitution and failures of democracy. He was giving a public talk inside a bus and successfully drawing people’s attention which was captured by a TV cameraman and then broadcasted on his satellite channel (Ekattor TV). Is this the so-called “freedom of speech” this western-backed regime brags about that it becomes frightened of a mere public talk that exposed the fallacy of democratic elections!! Indeed this is what ‘real democracy’ is – be it in Western world or its client Muslim states; freedom of speech is always universally used to defame Islam, whereas it cannot be used to expose the treachery of the regimes and conceptual fallacy of the western-style democracy.

Hizb ut Tahrir demands immediate release of Sajid bin Alam. We pray to Allah Almighty that He showers His Blessing on this valiant dawah carrier as He would bless His righteous servants, accept his efforts and sacrifices, and make him more steadfast to reach his objective, Ameen.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

in Wilayah Bangladesh