Jagannath University (JNU) students have blocked Dhaka-Mawa Highway pressing their demands for safe roads.
The death of a Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) student—who was run over by a bus on Tuesday—has resurrected the Road Safety Movement.
The students gathered at Old Dhaka’s Raishaheb intersection bringing traffic on Dhaka-Mawa Highway to a standstill on Wednesday morning.
They led a rally from the campus, after participating in a human chain demonstration, but were interrupted by the police. Then they took up positions at the intersection.
“So far the students are carrying out peaceful protests,” said Kotoatoli police Officer-in-Charge Mashiur Rahman.
The Jagannath University protestors were also joined by the students from Kazi Nazrul Islam College, Suhrawardy College, and other nearby schools and colleges.
Massive protest
Abrar's death has sparked a massive protest by the students of his university. BUP students have since been joined by students of other educational institutions.
Although police impounded the bus and arrested its driver, the students later blockaded the busy road and demonstrated, throughout Tuesday, demanding justice for Abrar and capital punishment for those responsible for the death.
They also demanded their eight-point demand for road safety be ensured, and called for classes to be boycotted in all educational institutions across the country on Wednesday.
Protests broke out in Dhaka—and across the country in July last year—demanding safe roads and justice, after two students died in a road accident on Dhaka's Airport Road.
Shaheed Ramiz Uddin School and College students Diya Khanam Mim and Abdul Karim Rajib were killed—and several others were injured—when a bus of Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan ploughed into a group of students on July 29, 2018.
