Dharamsala, June 11 – With the Chinese Vice President set to visit Bangladesh on June 13, a Bangladeshi activist for Tibet and social worker has found herself in the midst of police “harassment”. Wasfia Nazreen, a member for Students for a Free Tibet’s Bangladesh chapter and her family have been interrogated several times in the last six days by the Special Branch of Bangladesh Police’s Gulshan Thana and NSI members, according to a posting on a blog run by Drishtipat, a leading human rights organizations in Bangladesh.
Nazreen whose grandmother passed away on June 7 has not even overcome the grief of the loss of her grandmother and is observing the traditional ritual of Qul for her deceased grandmother at their village home today, the posting on unheardvoice.net said.
Investigating authorities have questioned her relatives and family not just in Dhaka but also in her native village in the district of Feni.
“Her lawyer and friends have expressed grave concern for her family members, especially those who live in the same areas of the burial, to have to go through such unrelated questioning at these hours of grief,” said the posting.
Friends of Nazreen, currently employed by CARE, a leading international humanitarian organization, have also expressed their sympathy and solidarity with her. Authorities suspect that Nazreen might have protests for Tibet and campaigns planned during the visit of the Chinese Vice President to Bangladesh.
Nazreen’s friends say that the police harassment started after she organized an exhibition jointly with Drik Gallery, titled INTO EXILE: TIBET 1949-2009 which was forced to shut down by riot-geared police under pressure from the Chinese Embassy in November 2009.
Bangladesh, home to nearly160 million people, is one of the few Muslim countries where Tibet issue gets a mention.
