Students, socio-cultural organisations and different political parties continued protest, forming human chains and holding rallies, across the country yesterday, demanding punishment to the rapists and killers of Sohagi Jahan Tonu inside a Comilla cantonment.
They expressed concerns over women’s insecurity as sexual assaults and killings of girls and women kept happening throughout the country.
Bangladesh Mahila Parishad President Ayesha Khanam expressed concerns that in some cases the culprits were trying to influence investigation and trial into rape and murder cases.
“We have recently witnessed that the son of a joint secretary was involved in the rape and murder of a housemaid and he is now trying to get help from the administration to influence the investigation to save himself,” she said.
She was addressing a human chain formed by the Mahila Parishad in front of the National Press Club yesterday afternoon.
“The tax the government collects from the people of the country is spent on law enforcers to ensure people’s security; but if people are murdered this way, then what is the justification of spending money on them?” said Ayesha Khanam.
Gonojagoron Moncho started a road march from the capital towards Comilla where they joined a mass protest.
On March 20, Sohagi Jahan Tonu was raped and murdered by miscreants in Alipur area of the Mainamati Cantonment.
Tonu was a second-year student of history at Comilla Victoria College and was also a cultural activist.
In Comilla, hundreds of students of Comilla University staged a protest rally on the campus, reports our correspondent in the district.
The university unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League expressed solidarity with the programme organised by general students.
Students of Tonu’s alma mater, Comilla Victoria College, also formed a human chain blocking the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway in Kotbari area in the morning.
They also staged protest rallies several times on the campus. The college unit Chhatra League supported the protest raillies.
When a rally led by Imran H Sarker, the spokesperson of Shahbagh Movement, reached the area thousands of people joined the programme.
Mahbubur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Mainamati Highway police, said students from different institutions also blocked the Nandapur Road.
Protest rallies were also held in Savar, Narayanganj, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Gaibandha.
