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Published : 23 Jul 2025, 02:12 PM
The Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BaSaD), and Bangladesh Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD) have staged a symbolic walkout from the National Consensus Commission’s dialogue session to protest law enforcement's crackdown on teachers, students, and parents demonstrating over the casualties caused by the Air Force jet crash at Milestone School and College.
The 18th session of the commission’s second phase of dialogue with political parties began shortly after 11am on Wednesday.
At the start of the session, the moderator, Chief Advisor’s Special Assistant Monir Haidar, invited the commission's Vice-President Ali Riaz to speak. But CPB General Secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince addressed the session instead.
Describing Monday's deadly crash at Milestone School as heartbreaking, he said: “Teachers, students, and guardians were attacked while protesting this tragedy. In the past, we saw authoritarian regimes respond to such events in similar ways. We are seeing similar patterns now. We know those who were part of authoritarian rule are trying to instigate crises and conspiracies.”
“I saw one advisor claim yesterday’s events were carried out by autocrats. Now they say we must take a united stand against this. In the past, when the authoritarian [ousted prime minister Sheikh] Hasina was in trouble, she used to say similar things. The 14-Party Alliance or others would sit beside her and talk about facing challenges together. We're seeing the same thing now.”
While acknowledging the importance of dialogue to reach a consensus on state reforms, Prince said it was not possible to engage in talks without protesting the incident. "That’s why we will step away for 10 minutes.”
JaSaD Standing Committee member Mushtaq Hossain and BaSaD General Secretary Bazlur Rashid Firoz joined him in solidarity.
Following the walkout by the three parties, Riaz said: “We welcome their protest as a legitimate democratic expression of political rights. Their statements have been placed before the nation. We believe the government will take these into consideration. We have noted their concerns.”
The three party leaders rejoined the dialogue around 11:25am.
