Abul Kalam was apprehended while taking photographs of buses departing the Kutupalong camps for Bhashan Char
Well-known Bangladeshi and international human rights figures, lawyers, academics, filmmakers, photographers, journalists and human rights organizations have called for the release of Rohingya photographer Abul Kalam.
Thirty-three of them signed a press release and called upon the authorities to release Abul Kalam unconditionally and without further delay.
On Tuesday morning, Abul Kalam, an award-winning photographer and Rohingya refugee, set out to take photographs of buses departing the Kutupalong camps for Bhashan Char.
He was apprehended and then taken to the camp-in-charge in Camp 2W Block D5 of Kutupalong, and subsequently to the camp-in-charge of Kutupalong Registered Camp. He was reportedly beaten when he was apprehended, the press release says.
Abul Kalam was detained at the Kutupalong police barracks until late afternoon of Wednesday.
Among the 33 signatories are: Dr CR Abrar, executive director of Dhaka University’s Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU); photojournalist Shahidul Alam; Barrister Sara Hossain, honorary executive director of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST); Shireen Pervin Huq, coordinator, Standing with Rohingya Women and founder member of Naripokkho; Laetitia van den Assum, diplomatic expert and former Netherlands ambassador; and Simon Billenness of the International Campaign for the Rohingya, USA.
According to Bangladeshi law, a person in custody should be brought before the courts within 24 hours. This was not the case for Abul Kalam and, at the time of writing, he has been detained for more than 60 hours, the press statement says.
This is a clear violation of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the directives of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court in Blast v Bangladesh (55 DLR 363), it further adds.
The relocation to Bhashan Char is a widely publicized program of the Bangladesh government. It is by no means a secret and has been extensively covered in the media, the statement says.
Abul Kalam, 35, has been a refugee himself for 28 years. He originally came from Borgozbil, Maungdaw, Myanmar. He is a prolific photographer and has documented refugee life in recent years.
His images have appeared in many publications, and he recently won two prizes in the Rohingya Photography Competition.
As you know, Sudan is facing one of the most critical humanitarian crises in the world today. It is the site of the largest internal displacement crisis on Earth. Conflict and genocide have 25 million Sudanese struggling with limited access to food, clean water, and basic medical care. That is half of the population.
Entire communities are uprooted, seeking safety in already overwhelmed areas, and the situation continues to deteriorate as resources become scarcer by the day.
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As you may have seen, Volkswagen has announced it is leaving Xinjiang, China. This is due to public pressure from you and people like you who took actions to let Volkswagen know that its complicity in the genocide against the Uyghurs is not acceptable. In 2024, you took nearly 7
The Uyghur community faces genocide, persecution, forced labor and organ harvesting, and separation from their families at unprecedented levels. For years, millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim groups in China’s Xinjiang region have been subjected to severe restrictions on their basic freedoms, leaving families and entire communities struggling to survive under immense pressure.
You have taken nearly 70,000 actions on behalf of the Uyghurs. We cannot thank you enough for that. Because of you, Congress is listening. Because of you, companies like Volkswagen are leaving Xinjiang, and Shein is on alert. But we cannot stop now.
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Raise awareness of the issue. Companies like VW and Shein rely on people not knowing where their products and the materials for their products come from. It has been estimated that one in five cotton garments are made with cotton from Xinjiang.
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Ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Azerbaijan
Over a year ago, Azerbaijan invaded Artsakh (Nagorono-Karabakh), and forced approximately 120,000 Armenians to flee their homes. The Armenians had lived there for more than one thousand years. Now Azerbaijan has started erasing all evidence that Armenians ever lived there.
You have taken over 6,600 actions this year on behalf of the Armenians forced from their ancestral homes by Azerbaijan. This atrocity cannot go unanswered.
Continue to raise awareness about atrocities committed by the Azerbaijan government. While it may not be leading newscasts or appearing on the front pages of newspapers, we need to make people aware of what happened. We cannot let this second genocide of Armenians go unchecked.
Make the U.S. government do more to help the displaced Armenians be allowed to go home. Congress can use its influence to rectify this wrong.
Hold BP accountable for its silence in this matter. BP has been in the region since the early 1990s. Since then, it has been the largest investor in Azerbaijan, spending more than $84 billion on projects in that nation. The United Nations has called on companies like BP to pay closer attention to human rights in these high-risk conflict zones.
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