MP Ekramul faces wrath after moral policing against students in Noakhali park

Mohammed Ekramul Karim Chowdhury MP is facing an outcry from netizens after publishing photos of youths detained in a drive in Noakhali Municipality Park.

Many questioned whether it is an MP's job to lead a police drive while some others slammed him for publishing photos of adolescents on social media.

The ruling Awami League MP from Noakhali Sadar constituency led the drive on Tuesday morning. The guardians of the detained boys and girls were called to the police station.

Posting the photos of the drive on his Facebook page, the MP wrote the students of schools and colleges skipped class to hang out in the park.

He advised the guardians to check what their children were doing and wrote: “I am clearly saying that police will detain and punish at police station any student hanging out in the park during classes at schools and colleges.” 

“Is it outlawed in Bangladesh to love someone?” the national award-winning actress Zakia Bari Mamo asked in a post.

Actress Shahanaj Khushi wrote that it is not always that lovers go to parks, but friends also hang out, much to the chagrin of drug addicts who lurk at the sites. “Stop the troubles they (drug addicts) make if you can,” she wrote.  

“Don’t you have any political or administrative work to do?” journalist Mesbah Aajad asked the Noakhali-4 MP in a post.

“Which law has empowered you to have boys and girls in the park detained by police, pick them up onto police van and circulate their photos on Facebook? I have no clue as to how a party nominates stupid people like you,” he wrote.

Online activist Aparajita Sangita and one Abir Ahmed Pias recalled the Tk 2 million settlement in which the family of a man killed in a hit-and-run incident involving Ekramul’s son Shabab Chowdhury agreed to drop charges last year.

“Under what law can police detain people hanging out in a park? And under what law culprits are let off after running over and killing others?” Sangita asked.

“Who has given you the power to do this? Under what law you had them detained and taken to the police station? Do you know you should face penalty if these boys and girls sue you for libel?” Abir asked.

“I’ve heard that your son is an expert in running over and killing pedestrians. Send your son to jail instead of concealing these crimes with Tk 2 million if you are a true keeper of the law,” he added.

Another Facebook user, Zakaria Chowdhury, doubted whether the MP published the photos to get “cheap popularity”.

But many have hailed the MP for his “efforts”.

“Undoubtedly a praiseworthy job! You can’t control them if you do not get tough. They were doing dirty things in the name of love by dodging classes,” one Mizanur Rahman Kiron wrote.

Ekramul claimed he was present in the park by accident and it coincided with the police drive.

Speaking to bdnews24.com on Wednesday, the MP said he stopped after seeing a college boy and a girl in an “obscene” moment.

He defended his Facebook post saying it meant to alert the guardians of Noakhali. 

The MP also said a notice was already there in the park announcing a ban on entrance of students during class.