16 Ctg citizens worried over delay in bringing attackers to book

Sixteen eminent citizens in Chittagong yesterday expressed grave concern over the murder of a publisher, and attack on another publisher and a youth in an attempt to kill them on October 31 in the capital.

In a joint statement, they said they were concerned about the future of the nation.

They further said that they were worried about the delay in bringing the culprits behind the murder of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan and other such incidents to justice.

People were "losing hope" of getting justice and "losing their faith" in the judicial system, added the statement.

They said they expected the government to realise the seriousness of the situation and come out of  the old trend of "giving messages of hope" as this would not unearth the reason behind the rise of extremism in the country.

The citizens are: Prof Dr Anupam Sen, Mushtari Shafi, Prof Dr Mainul Islam, Dr Mahbubul Haque, poet Abul Momen, Dr AQM Sirajul Islam, Ferdous Ara Alim, Prof Alok Roy, engineer Delwar Majumder, Dr Bhuyan Iqbal, Prof Ghulam Mustafa, Swapan Dutta, Biswajit Chowdhury, Omar Kaisar, Kamrul Hasan Badal and architect Zarina Hossain.