Staff Correspondent

Civil society members have condemned and protested an attack on a photography exhibition on extrajudicial killings organised by Drik Gallery on September 4.

In a statement issued on Sunday, sixty members of civil society also alleged that there was an ill attempt to foil the peaceful event held at the Dhaka University campus on September 4.

“The entire protest programme against crossfire was being streamed live on Facebook. We clearly saw that more than 100 activists of the ruling party led by councillor of ward-26 of Dhaka South City Corporation, Hasibur Rahman Manik, stormed into the programme,” read the statement.

At that time, Manik told the protesters that the trial of August 21 grenade attack case has to be carried out first and the trial of other cases should not be done till then, said the statement.

“The ruling party men then started pushing around the rights activists, snatched photos displayed for the exhibit, tried to seize activists’ mobile phones and stood in front of the gallery’s banner wielding their own placards,” it said.

The ruling party men allegedly snatched loudspeakers from the rights activists.

The civil society members also questioned the role of police, claiming they played the role of silent spectators during the whole incident.