Nagorik Oikya wants release of Manna

Leaders of Nagorik Oikya at a programme yesterday demanded that the government release its leader Mahmudur Rahman Manna immediately.

At the event in Bangladesh Shishu Kalyan Parishad's auditorium, they claimed that both the government and private institutions are politically biased, and that Manna was arrested on false charges as he protested politicisation, terrorism and corruption.  

Plainclothes detectives detained the then Nagorik Oikya convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna in the capital on February 24.

The next day, Rapid Action Battalion confirmed that it arrested Manna and handed him over to the Detective Branch of police.

The arrest was made a day after his phone conversation with BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka was leaked to the media anonymously.

In the conversation, Manna was heard talking about strengthening the anti-government movement, among other issues.