A human rights and social controversy has erupted in Chattogram following the arrest of Md Sajjad Hossain, an ambulance driver who provided free emergency transport to injured individuals during the historic July uprising. Arrested by police from the Shah Lane area of Chawkbazar on a Saturday, Sajjad was subsequently presented before a court and remanded into custody on two separate charges by Sunday. The developments remained largely under wraps until details emerged publicly five days later on Friday.
Sajjad resides in the Goyachhi Bagan neighbourhood under Panchlaish Police Station in the port city and earns his livelihood driving patient-transport ambulances affiliated with the Chattogram Medical College (CMC) Hospital.
According to family accounts, Sajjad had previously been implicated in two separate cases filed at Chawkbazar Police Station in February of last year. Seeking formal exclusion from these proceedings, he submitted a petition to the Commissioner of the Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP), after which law enforcement reportedly ceased targeting or harassing him for an extended period.
Background records indicate that on the night of seventeen February of last year, activists linked to the banned student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League staged a procession in the Chawkbazar area. Sajjad was subsequently named as an accused in the police case filed the following day. Upon discovering his inclusion, he formally appealed to the CMP Commissioner on ten March, attaching documentation detailing his humanitarian contributions and support for demonstrators during the mass uprising. However, a second procession occurred on the evening of twenty-five March near Chatteshwari Road within the same police jurisdiction, resulting in Sajjad facing a secondary accusation. Family members recount that they subsequently met with the then-officer-in-charge of Chawkbazar Police Station, Md Jahedul Kabir, who allegedly assured them that Sajjad’s name would be omitted from the final charge sheets upon reviewing the submitted exonerating evidence.
Tensions escalated recently when an anonymous faction allegedly submitted fabricated organisational documents to police, designating Sajjad as the joint general secretary of the Chawkbazar Thana Sramik League. Sajjad’s elder brother, Ariful Islam—who formerly served as the organisational secretary for the Chawkbazar Thana unit of the Jatiyatabadi Chatra Dal—strongly refuted these claims. He stated that his brother has never been involved in partisan politics and spent the critical days of the July movement using social media to coordinate emergency ambulance dispatches and donating blood for wounded students. The family maintains that he is the victim of a deliberate political vendetta and a framed conspiracy.
Echoing these sentiments, Sakhowat Hossain Shipon, an organiser of the July movement, condemned the detention. He described Sajjad as a vital frontline ally who selflessly rescued injured protesters and transported them to medical facilities during the unrest, asserting that arresting such a humanitarian under anti-terrorism legislation is wholly unjustifiable.
When approached for comment, Md Habibur Rahman, the Deputy Police Commissioner (South) of the CMP, stated that Sajjad Hossain was apprehended as a named suspect listed directly in the First Information Report of an anti-terrorism case registered at the police station. He added that he had no official knowledge regarding any formal appeal or letters submitted by the accused to the police commissioner seeking relief from the ongoing legal proceedings.
