Students of Jagannath University (JnU) began a mass hunger strike on Friday afternoon at the Kakrail Mosque intersection.
They marched towards the chief adviser's residence, State Guest House Jamuna, to demand the fulfillment of their rights.
Both current and former students of JnU assembled at Kakrail to join the mass hunger strike which began at 3:45pm.
During the demonstration, the students filled the streets with various protest slogans, including:
"One, two, three, four, a dorm is our right,” “If you want blood, take it, a dorm is our right.”
The formal announcement of the strike was made by Dr Mohammad Monzur Morshed Bhuiyan, spokesperson for the Teachers’ Association and a professor in the Finance Department.
He said: “We have come from the campus, and we will not return until our demands are met. From this moment, our mass hunger strike begins.”
Earlier, at 3pm, the announcement was also made during a rally by Mahtab Limon, general secretary of the JnU Journalists’ Association, on behalf of “JnU Unity.”
He said: “Our movement has reached a point where there is no turning back. We will begin our hunger strike at 3:30pm. We will not return without victory.”
On Thursday, the decision for Friday’s program was announced by Prof Dr Md Rais Uddin, general secretary of the Teachers’ Association, following a consensus among leaders of all political and social organizations at JnU, under the banner of “JnU Unity.”
The students declared that they would remain stationed at the Kakrail intersection until their demands were met.
Rais said: “We presented our demands to the government in an effort to secure our rights. In response, they attacked us. Teachers and students were brutally beaten, yet no attention has been paid to our rightful demands. We have received no response from the government.”