30 November 2004
Prasit Bikash Khisha, convenor of the United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF), in a statement issued to the press today, 30 November, demanded immediate and unconditional release of Hill Youth Forum leaders Dipankar Chakma and Michael Chakma, general secretary and finance secretary respectively.
In the statement the UPDF leader alleged that police picked them up from Free Port area in Chittagong at the dead of night at the behest of some top JSS leaders. Two JSS members accompanied the police during the arrest.
Mr. Khisha said the UPDF leaders did not have any cases filed against them anywhere before the arrest.
He further said, “recently political repression of the UPDF and its front organisations has increased. Their peaceful meetings and rallies are being regularly disrupted and other fundamental and democratic rights are being denied to them. Until now about 70 leaders and activists of the party are being detained in various jails. They have been implicated in false cases.
The UPDF leader urged the government to immediately put an end to all such repression.
[Press Section, Publicity and Publication Department, United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF). Issued on November 30, 2004]