14 put on remand over Secretariat chaos, ‘collusion with fascists'

A Dhaka court on Friday put on remand 14 workers and officials of the Secretariat on allegations of causing chaos at the government headquarters with a view to "derailing the upcoming national elections in collusion with the ousted fascist rulers."

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jamshed Alam put each of the accused on five-day remand, after the investigation officer sought seven-day remand for each.

The accused organised protest and disrupted security at the Secretariat, violating the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) ban on unauthorised gatherings at the Key Point Installation (KPI), said the remand plea filed by Shahbagh Police Station Sub-Inspector KM Rezaul Karim.

Intelligence data and preliminary probe also suggest that the suspects collaborated with the ousted Awami League leaders do threaten Secretariat security and disrupt the election environment, the remand plea added.

On Wednesday and Thursday, hundreds of Secretariat employees staged protest at the strategic facility demanding immediate introduction of 20% additional allowance for the special duties they perform including overtime work.

All other groups of government workers get extra pay beyond their authorised pay scale, and therefore, similar additional allowance is “long-overdue” for the Secretariat employees, the protesters said.

On Wednesday, they confined Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed to his office for around six hours demanding the “immediate announcement” of 20% Secretariat allowance. The adviser assured them of issuing a Government Order (GO) realising their demand by evening the next day, but they were uncompromising.

Around 8:30pm, a special police unit rescued the adviser from confinement by dispersing the agitators.

The following day, the protesters resumed demonstrations at Secretariat, violating the DMP ban on gatherings. At one point, police detained five protesters, including some of the organisers. Later, nine more were arrested in a case filed by the police unit in charge of Secretariat security.