Students Against Discrimination on Sunday afternoon suspended all its committees across the country except its central committee following the alleged involvement of some leaders of the platform in extortion.
Accepting the platform鈥檚 responsibility, SAD president Rifat Rashid made the announcement at a press conference at Shahbagh in the capital.
鈥楢ctivities of all the committees except the central committee are officially suspended from now,鈥� announced Rifat.
鈥榃e have noticed the issues of extortion and corruption, which is quite impossible for us to control at this moment,鈥� said Rifat, adding that the decision was taken at a meeting among top four leaders on the day.
He also said that some of the leaders and activists of the platform were involved in crimes due to their affiliations with different political parties.
Rifat also stated that those leaders and activists misused the banner of SAD, which spearheaded the July uprising.聽聽
Earlier, on Saturday night, SAD permanently expelled its Dhaka north city unit convener Md Ibrahim Hossain Munna, members Md Sadkaun Siam, and Sadman Sadab while Ganatantrik Chhatra Sangsad expelled Abdur Razzaque Bin Solaiman Riyad for his alleged involved in extortion.
Police arrested five people, including the four now on seven-day remand, from a house on Saturday when they went to former Awami League lawmaker Shammi Ahmed鈥檚 house at Gulshan for demanding extortion money after taking Tk 10 lakh earlier, said Gulshan police station officer-in-charge Md Hafizur Rahman. Shammi Ahmed was also the AL central executive committee鈥檚 international affairs secretary,
After announcing the suspension of the committees, Rifat said that they would make an outline soon on continuing the platform鈥檚 activities in the upcoming days.
Addressing questions from reporters, Rifat said that no platform or organisation took any responsibility for the crimes committed by its leaders and activists, but SAD accepted its responsibility as a platform and suspended the committees.
He mentioned that there were over 20,000 leaders and activists and over 1,00,000 members in the platform
SAD spearheaded the July uprising to oust the Awami League regime on August 5, 2024.
Most of the central leaders of SAD, including Nahid Islam, Sarjis Alam, Hasnat Abdullah, and Abdul Hannan Masud left the platform and formed the National Citizen Party on February 28.
After a months-long inactive existence, SAD held its first central council and new leaders were elected on June 25 to run the platform.
