The Anti-discrimination ISP alliance formed a human chain in front of BTRC at Agargaon in the capital on Wednesday to end discrimination in the ISP sector. Under the leadership of one of the coordinators of the alliance, KU Ahmed Salim and Zulfikar Haider, hundreds of ISP businessmen participated in human chain with 4-point demands around 11:30 am.
With banners written their demands on, they chanted slogans for almost an hour. Among the demands, it has been decided to open the license upgradation facilities of ISPs at all layers, to withdraw CDN in accordance with international law, to keep the membership of ISPAB optional and to maintain the facility of receiving bandwidth at all layers.
From the human chain, Zulfikar Haider, one of the coordinators of the alliance said that, for the past 5 years, marginal traders are suffering due to the discriminatory adoption of multiple policies with about 2700 ISPs in the country. He also blamed the current ISPAB executive committee for shutting down the Internet, saying they lied. He did not feel the need to talk to ordinary traders. In addition, he agreed with the Minister of State. So, they have no moral basis to be in this position.
The present executive committee members of ISPAB were also present in the human chain. Among them, President Imdadul Haque was not allowed to stand in the human chain in the face of clashes and condemnation. However, General Secretary Nazmul Karim Bhuiyan was present. He said, we agree with all the demands made by the coalition.
Meanwhile, the anti-discrimination ISP alliance has condemned the incident of clashes in the human chain by outsiders. Shariful Islam, coordinator of the alliance, said that we have formed an alliance for the sake of business. Not to act as a broker. Due to the brokerage, CDNs are arranged to shut down the internet instantly by giving them to IIG. These issues should be reformed. We are not a ministry but we strongly demand to the advisor Nahidul Islam to the interim government to fulfill our logical demands by forming an independent commission to BTRC.
