Emi walks out of jail in case over playing 7 March speech

Former Dhaka University (DU) student leader Sheikh Tasnim Afroz Emi was freed from the Kashimpur Female’s Central Jail on Thursday noon after two months, her lawyer confirmed in a Facebook post.

On 30 April, the High Court (HC) granted her bail in an “anti-terrorism case” filed over her publicly playing the historic 7 March 1971 speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

After leaving the prison, Emi, the former vice president of Shamsunnahar Hall student union at DU, alleged that after she and her supporters were held under "mob pressure," police did not want to implicate them in any lawsuit.

However, due to the mob situation created by Islami Chhatra Shibir, and Students Against Discrimination (SAD), police were forced to file a case under the anti-terrorism law on 8 March, she alleged.

Emi claimed that her marriage was deferred to free up time for her master’s exam preparations, but now due to her jail time she cannot sit for the exam itself. She also lost dear ones in the past two months, she said.

Holding the Liberation War and Sheikh Mujib’s historic speech, alongside the Declaration of Independence by Ziaur Rahman, can never be a crime in Bangladesh, Emi told reporters.

She urged the Home Ministry to take more resolute steps against mob action, and called on everyone to exercise tolerance and strengthen unity.

On the night of 7 March, Emi and her supporters rode on rickshaws to the Shahbagh Police Station, as part of a pre-announced measure. In front of the police station, they switched on a loudspeaker and played the historic speech by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Leaders from Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) AB Zubair and Mosaddek Ali Ibn Mohmmad, also members of Chhatra Shibir, as well as Tahmid Al Modassir, convener of NCP’s student wing Chhatra Shakti, led a team of students in preventing the public rendition of the speech.

At one point, AB Zubair and Mosaddek forced the rickshaw carrying Emi inside the police station.

Emi’s compatriot Abdullah Al Mamun was beaten inside the police station’s compound. Police later took Emi, Abdullah Al Mamun and another of their allies in custody. The following day, police filed a lawsuit against all three.