The Workers Party of Bangladesh (WPB) held a protest meeting in Dhaka on Monday, August 17, and demanded the immediate release of its president Rashed Khan Menon who has been incarcerated for the last two years.

The protest meeting was held at the party office at Topkhana Road which has been repeatedly attacked by right wing forces in the last two years.

The meeting was called to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the attempted assasination of Menon in 1992. After the meeting the participants also carried out a march across the old city under the leadership of acting president of the WPB Mahmudul Hasan Malick.

The speakers in the meeting claimed that the same religious right wing forces who killed several left-wing leaders and tried to assassinate young Menon in 1992 during their campaign to terrorize progressive forces in the country have now incarcerated Menon on fake and cooked up charges.

Menon (82) was arrested on August 23, 2024, in Dhaka. He was later charged with the murder of protesters during the violent  anti-quota protests in the country. The protests, which lasted almost a month, forced then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and leave the country on August 5.

The WPB has rejected the charges against Menon as “politically motivated” and called it a result of “political conspiracy.”

Menon and the WPB had supported the demands of the anti-quota agitation asking the state to revisit its policies and condemned the violence. They have also pointed out that Menon was not holding any position of power at the time of the protests.

Nonetheless, Menon was targeted and arrested because the WPB was a coalition partner of the Awami League, Hasina’s party at the time. Menon had also served as minister during her previous terms in government.

On Monday, the WPB claimed that after successive governments in the country failed in providing justice to numerous activists who were killed or faced murderous attempts, such as Menon, during the 1992 violence have now waged a new conspiracy against the left in the country.

Instead of providing justice to Menon who is “both an organizer of the country’s Liberation War and beloved leader of the Leftist movement,” powerful pro-imperialist forces in the country have “always tried to halt his journey,” a press release issued by the WPB after the meeting claims.

Bangladesh was founded in 1971 after a successful War of Liberation against Pakistan.

Speaking during the meeting, Nur Ahmed Bakul, acting general secretary of the WPB called the workers to “confront all conspiracies hatched by malevolent forces,” who after failing to kill Menon have now “conspired to keep him incarcerated.”

“At this critical junction for the nation, all pro-liberation, social and democratic forces must unite to intensify the struggle against imperialism and fundamentalism,” Bakul said. He reiterated the demands that all false cases against Menon must be withdrawn and he must be released from prison immediately.

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