Ansars suspend protest after ‘abolition of rest tradition’

The Ansar members today suspended their protest temporarily after the government today assured them of abolishing the "rest tradition" in the force.

Adviser to Home Affairs Lt Gen (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury made the disclosure following an hour-long meeting with seven-member representatives of the demonstrating Ansar members at the secretariat today.

Ansar members withdrew their ongoing strike for a week, he added. Maj Gen Abdul Motaleb Sazzad Mahmud, the director general of the Ansar and VDP was also present there.

A seven-member committee has been formed with the DG of Ansar and VDP as convenor, and Jahanar Akter, director of the Ansar and VDP as member secretary to evaluate the other demands of the force.

The committee has been asked to submit a report within the next seven days, according to a notification issued by the public security division of the home ministry.

The report then will be sent to an inter-ministerial committee which will take necessary decisions based on the recommendations, he added.

The General Ansar members are protesting on various issues including nationalisation of the force members after the ouster of the Awami League government.

Asked about the rest tradition, the Ansar's DG said that according to the Ansar regulation, a member is sent on a six-month mandatory leave after working for three consecutive years. During the period, Ansar members suffer a miserable life as they do not get paid.

"A process has been taken to abolish the rest tradition. After the process is complete, these will be treated as regular jobs," he said.

There are three branches of Ansar: the General Ansar, the Battalion Ansar, and the Village Defence Party (VDP).

According to officials, the government do not pay any salary to 70,000 general Ansar members. A member is paid by the office – Tk 540 per day -- where he is deployed for security and other purposes.

Besides, ration facilities are allocated for them through the Ministry of Home Affairs on behalf of the force.

On average, the Ansar and VDP headquarters receive a deployment requisition for 55,000 for different institutes or government offices around the year.

Besides General Ansars, there are around 17,000 regular members in the force called the Battalion Ansar. The force has also around 57 lakh VDP members, whose jobs are volunteer-based.

Adviser to Information Affairs Nahid Islam, who was also present at the press briefing, said the committee formed will come up with a decision soon.

"We are in a national crisis. We have a lot of work to do," he said, adding that a logical solution can be found through discussion.

Following the assurance, Md Nasim Miah, the number one convener of the ongoing Ansar protest, welcomed the formation of the committee and the assurance of abolishing the "rest tradition".

"We are suspending the demonstration, and the Ansar members will go back to their work," he said.

"We will look into the decision [of the committee] and then we will declare our next course of action," Nasim Miah added.