PROSHIKA's Statement Presented in the Press Conference Organized on 14 September 2006 in Protest Against the Unlawful Arrest and Harassment of the PROSHIKA Staff and Group Members by the Government of Bangladesh

Dear Friends

Please accept our best wishes

On behalf of PROSHIKA we would like to express our gratitude and thanks to you for being present in this press conference amid your important professional responsibilities at this juncture of our national life.

You are already aware that the government has begun to arrest and torture the PROSHIKA workers again across the country. Since Friday, 8 September, the government has arrested hundreds of PROSHIKA workers including a Deputy Director, Sirajul Islam, without any warrant of arrest or assigning any reasons whatsoever. The members of police and other government agencies have created a panic among the staff by laying siege to different PROSHIKA offices all over the country and in some places they have destroyed valuable documents by ransacking the offices. The PROSHIKA workers are being harassed and arrested indiscriminately on false charges of theft, burglary, robbery, subversion and even sedition. In different areas police have forced the workers to shut the offices of PROSHIKA Area Development Centres and created a white terror by intimidating them. The workers of PROSHIKA are not even safe in their own houses in some areas as police are also raiding their houses. Thus, they have created a frightening situation inside PROSHIKA, one of the leading development organizations of the country.

Dear Friends

As you are aware, since its inception PROSHIKA has been working to establish an equitable and just society through strengthening the process of poverty alleviation, women's empowerment, democratization, and promotion of human rights and good governance. As a leading organization representing the conscious and proactive civil society of the country, PROSHIKA has been providing its services very successfully to 10.5 million poor people. PROSHIKA has helped about 1.3 million families to get out of poverty and created employment for 10 million people. Besides, PROSHIKA has extensive programmes on education, health, environmental protection and regeneration, and socio-economic development. Today, PROSHIKA is recognized internationally as a role model of development. PROSHIKA works to bring about the freedom of the poor people of the country, to establish human rights, to achieve women's emancipation and their equal rights, to uphold the spirit of the War of Liberation, and above all, to make the process of good governance and democratization stronger and more meaningful.

Dear Friends

We are deeply aggrieved and surprised to see that since the rise to power of BNP and its fundamentalist allies (Jamate Islami and Islami Oikkojote) they have been making an all-out effort to destroy PROSHIKA. Particularly, the religious fundamentalist lobby within the government is very active in this respect. In 1998, even before coming to power, these fundamentalist forces made an open and barbarous attack on PROSHIKA in Brahmanbaria. They also issued an order in a public meeting to shoot PROSHIKA President Dr. Qazi Faruque Ahmed at sight. As these fundamentalists are sharing power with BNP now they have become more aggressive and are using the government machinery to destroy PROSHIKA. In order to harass PROSHIKA, different law-enforcing agencies including police are being unethically used. By bringing many false and fictitious charges against PROSHIKA, the government has been blocking PROSHIKA's donor funds and hindering all the development activities of the organization since 2001. Right after the election of 2001, many PROSHIKA offices across the country were attacked, ransacked and looted. A huge number of PROSHIKA staff were harassed and ruthlessly tortured. In 2004, the PROSHIKA headquarters and the area development offices were raided and vandalized. One office after another was ransacked and looted indiscriminately. The final blow came through the arrest of Dr. Qazi Faruque Ahmed who was implicated in many false cases. Along with him PROSHIKA's Vice-President Mr. David William Biswas and Deputy Director Mr. Abdur Rob were also arrested. Besides this, due to arrest warrants issued in false cases, PROSIKA's Senior Vice-President Mr. Mahbubul Karim, Director Mr. Shahnewaz, Deputy Director Mr. Sirajul Islam, and many other senior officials and staff had to go into hiding. But following a relentless legal battle alongside protests from the global civil society, all the PROSHIKA officials and staff including its President were released by frustrating all the evil designs of the government.

Dear Friends

We think that the current pincer movement launched by the government against PROSHIKA is nothing but a part of the continued process of destroying the organization under a blueprint. The ongoing unlawful and unethical oppression of PROSHIKA is being carried out as a step towards implementing the design of the religious fundamentalist groups within the government, since PROSHIKA believes in the spirit of the War of Liberation and has always been vocal against all kinds of fundamentalism and fatwa-mongering.

We want to make it clear that the government oppression of PROSHIKA is completely against the fundamental human rights guaranteed in the Constitution of the country. We strongly demand that all the PROSHIKA staff so far arrested be immediately and unconditionally released and the irrational and atrocious attack on PROSHIKA be stopped at once. At the same time, we also call upon the progressive and democratic forces in the country to raise their voices against the barbarities perpetrated by the government flouting the rule of law and all norms of human rights