Students of Rajshahi University (RU) on Wednesday demonstrated by blockading the Dhaka-Rajshahi Highway, joining the road safety movement rekindled by the death of a student in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The demonstration took place in front of RU main gate around 12pm.
Protests spread across the country on Wednesday following the death of Abrar Ahmed Chowdhury, a student of Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP), in a road accident in Dhaka's Kuril on Tuesday and in demand of safer roads.
Later, following requests from the proctorial team, RU students withdrew the blockade and held human chains on two sides of the Dhaka-Rajshahi Highway.
They also urged the authorities to meet the eight-point charter of demands — calling for strict implementation of traffic rules and laws and exemplary punishment of the bus driver responsible for Abrar's death — placed by the students who started the protests in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, students in Narayanganj's Siddhirganj also demonstrated by blocking the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway, demanding justice for Abrar.
Their blockade had halted traffic on the highway for about an hour from 12:30pm.
The students also took it upon themselves to check vehicle documents and driving licences before they allowed the vehicles to move along — like protesters did during last year's road safety movement.
They withdrew the blockade and left the highway after Siddhirganj police station Officer-in-Charge Mir Shahin Shah Parvez managed to talk them down.
Shahin said: "We agree with the students. Their movement is logical and we support them. But disorder during a movement is always unwelcome."
