Kibria's family to start non-violent movement for killers' punishment
Staff Correspondent
Family of Shah AMS Kibria would launch a 'non-violent movement' involving people from all walks of life to demand punishment to the killers of Kibria and an end to such violence."My mother Asma Kibria will lead the movement and she will urge the countrymen to protest the killing by taking to the streets for half an hour on Friday afternoon," Dr Reza Kibria, son of the slain lawmaker, told The Daily Star yesterday. "This would be our first step towards the movement." The peaceful protest would begin at 3:00pm when the family members of the former finance minister will be standing in line in front of their residence. The family would also work towards strengthening international campaign against the assassination. "We will continue the movement till the killers of my father are brought to book. We will work tirelessly for be it one, two or five years to achieve this end," said Dr Reza. Without elaborating on the programmes, he said, "It won't be like typical political programmes, rather it would be non-violent but effective." Meanwhile, top business leaders of the country on Monday night visited Kibria's family in their Dhanmondi residence to condole the death. They expressed solidarity with the family in any move it would take against violence. Asma Kibria has already written a statement that would soon be circulated among people urging them to join the movement by participating in Friday's protest. "The time has come to take a tougher stance. Express your dismay peacefully and show your solidarity with us," it said. "I'm making the appeal to commoners for whose economic emancipation Kibria returned from abroad and worked and also to the people of Habiganj for whom he sacrificed his life," Asma Kibria wrote. The statement called upon people from across the professional spectrum to join the movement to ensure punishment of the culprits. Reminding Kibria's contribution to the Liberation War, she also called on the freedom fighters and all pro-libertarian forces to join the Friday's programme. On prime minister's assurance of proper inquiry into the killing, Dr Reza Kibria said, "We have no confidence in government-supervised joint investigations as those have repeatedly failed to solve the previous crimes." He demanded independent international inquiry and said, "This kind of investigation would be genuinely independent only if there is no participation by any government agency in its supervision. However, the government should co-operate when required." The report of the investigation should be made available in its entirety to the public, he added. He said government's negligence in arranging proper medical treatment and flying his injured father to Dhaka should also be investigated. Dr Reza said, "We are saddened and distressed that the government is using my father's death to spread more lies." Referring to prime minister's claim in parliament that she had wanted to pay a visit to Kibria's family, he said, "No permission is required to visit a bereaved family, but in any case we did not know of any such request." "Much more important than any such gesture and a few meaningless phrases would be real action on her part to bring my father's killers to justice. If she did this there would be no need to come to us -- we would ourselves go to her office to thank her," he added.
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