Student protests roll into sixth day

Protesting school and college students, mostly teenagers, took to the streets in Dhaka for the sixth straight day on Friday, protesting at transport sector anarchy and seeking safe roads and justice for the deaths of two fellows in a road accident in Dhaka on July 29.
At some points, when the protestors tried to capture roads and began to check documents of drivers and vehicles and asked the vehicle to maintain lanes, they were barred by police.
Different organisations as well as parents of the students, in separate human chains in front of National Press Club, Shahbagh and Mirpur in the capital, seeking safe roads, expressed solidarity with the students’ movement and demanded that the young protesters should not be harassed in future.
They also protested at the Thursday’s attack by police and activists of ruling Awami League’s student body Bangladesh Chhatra League on the protesting students in Dhaka and Chittagong.

1. Physicians and staff of Community Hospital form a human chain near the hospital, 2. A student checks documents of a car at Shahbagh and 3. A bus, which killed a staff 
member of the hospital, goes up in flame after protesters set it on fire at Moghbazar in the capital on Friday. — Sourav Lasker/ New Age photo

Commuters in Dhaka suffered immensely as there was almost no public bus on city roads. Most of them were seen to walk to reach their destination while some others opted for rickshaws and CNG-run auto rickshaws spending almost double the normal fare.
Transport workers also took to the streets and demonstrated at Jatrabari and Mirpur demanding ‘safety’ of their vehicles and release of the bus staff arrested in connection with the accident that killed the two students and injured 12 others at Kurmitola in Dhaka. 
Though Friday was a weekly holiday, the students demonstrated carrying posters reading their demands at points including Shahbagh, Rampura, Dhanmondi, Mirpur, Asad Gate Agargaon and Moghbazar.
The protesters were seen checking documents of vehicles and traffic management at places.
Shaheed Ramiz Uddin School and College students Diya Khanam Mim and Abdul Karim Rajib were killed and at least 12 others were injured as a bus of Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan ploughed through a crowd of students
waiting for buses in front of Kurmitola General Hospital on Airport Road on July 29 while racing two other buses.
The students took to the streets in Dhaka on Sunday and placed nine-point demands, including justice for the deceased, apology of shipping minister Shajahan Khan and safe roads.
At Mirpur-10 intersection, protesting students from different educational institutions took position in phases between 11:00am and 5:00pm and they were seen checking documents and suggesting the motorcycle drivers and passengers to use helmets to abide by the law and for safety of their lives.
The students said that they would be back at the same place today at 10:00am and would not hinder movement of any vehicle.
Traffic sergeant Nurul Islam at the point said that the students had worked with them to control traffic. 
In front of Sony Cinema Hall at Mirpur, a group of former students of Monipur School and College, especially who passed SSC in 1995, formed a human chain for about an hour since 11:00am, protesting at Thursday’s police attack on the protesting students at Mirpur-13.
‘I have come here for safety of our children,’ said Manira Sultana, a guardian, at the point said.
On Satmasjid Road in the capital’s Dhanmondi, about 50 students, mostly of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, started managing traffic maintaining zebra crossing around 3:00pm.
A student of the university, Asadujjaman Shuvo, told New Age that about 50 to 60 leaders and activists of ruling Awami League’s youth front, Juba League, and student front, Chhatra League, attacked them and beat them up.
He claimed that at least four of their fellows were injured.
Shuvo said that the attackers tried to break the main gate of the university as the students took shelter inside the campus and locked it to save them.
Online news portal Priyo.com journalist Pradip Das, who was covering the student protest, was beaten by the attackers who also ransacked his office in the area. 
The news portal head of operation, Nazmus Sakib Niloy, in a general diary with Dhanmondi police alleged that unidentified miscreants assaulted Pradip and vandalised their office around 6:10pm. 
At Shahbagh intersection, a group of students took position on the road about 11:00am and began checking the documents of vehicles but they left the intersection within 20 minutes as police personnel intervened.
Kabi Nazrul Islam College student Sajib Hossain at the point said that they were leaving the place fearing intimidation. ‘We are less in number today.’ 
Police picked up a 45-year-old man, Aminur Rahman, who claimed himself to be an activist of Socialist Party of Bangladesh from the spot while he had been talking to the protesters.
Shahbagh police said they released him after interrogation.
At Rampura bridge, a group of 15 students began human chain about 12:00pm and they left the place in minutes immediately after a huge number of police intervened them, witnesses said.
A small group of students and their parents demonstrated in Rampura Bazar area holding handwritten posters to press home their demand for safe road.
Dhaka Community Medical College Hospital doctors and staff stage demonstration at Wireless intersection in capital’s Moghbazar after a nurse of the hospital was killed as a reckless bus hit the motorcycle he was riding on Friday around 1:45pm on Friday. The protest continued until 8:30pm.
While chairing a citizens’ rally jointly organised by 32 civic and rights organisations in front of National Museum in the capital, columnist Syed Abul Maksud urged the government to fulfill the demands of the students, not merely accepting them.
Expressing his solidarity with the protesters, he said that the children were only protesting at road transport sector anarchy and that the protest should not be branded as an anti-government movement.
He urged the government not to harass them in future.
He expected that the next cabinet meeting on August 6 will reflect the will of people’s expression as the Road Transport Bill. 
Centre for Policy Dialogue senior research fellow Mustafizur Rahman said that the cost of making safe road should not be considered as expenditure. ‘It should be seen as an investment.’
He called for ensuring good governance, transparency and accountability of all the stakeholders in road transport sector.
DU professors Khandaker Bazlul Haque, Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan general secretary Abdul Matin, Nagarik Udyog executive director Zakir Hossain, Farida Akhter of Sasthya Adhikar Andolon and journalist Nikhil Bhadra, who became impaired in a road accident, also spoke.
In the evening, Dhaka city unit of left student organisation Bangladesh Chhatra Union in a protest rally carrying candles in front of National Museum in the evening extended their solidarity with the protesting students demanding road safety and demanded resignation of shipping minister Shahjahan Khan.
Addressing the rally, Communist Party of Bangladesh president Mujahidul Islam Selim said prime minister Sheikh Hasina also took part in several movement demanding half fair for students in public transportation during Ayub regime and now if she did not meet the demands of the students that would be betrayal.
In a rally in front of National Press Club in the morning demanding safe road, Nirapad Sarak Chai founder and actor Ilias Kanchan urged the students to go back to their homes by giving time to the government to implement their nine-point demands.
Terming the demands of the students logical, he warned the government that if fulfilling their demands did not begin next Sunday, he would take part in the movement and would take to the streets.
At different parts of the city, thousands of people were seen walking to reach their destinations as the city roads went off roads. Besides, the commuters were seen travelling by rickshaws, rickshaw-vans, pick-up vans and human howlers by paying almost double fare than that of previous times. 
At Jatrabari, Dhaka district transport owners and workers blocked the road between Kajla and Signboard on Dhaka-Chittagong highway for about two hours since 10:00am demanding safety of their buses, release of Jabal-e-Noor staff and did not allow any bus to leave from or enter into the city.
At Gabtoli Bus Terminal, transport workers took position in the morning and asked different countermen not to run any bus from Dhaka, said different transport companies’ staffers. 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net