Students, minority rights protesters announce long march to Brahmanbarhia's Nasirnagar

Student and secular organisations have announced a long march from Dhaka’s Shahbagh to Brahmanbarhia’s Nasirnagar to protest the recent attacks on minorities.

The announcement came on Tuesday, when almost 300 students blocked the intersection at Dhaka's Shahbagh under the banners of two student bodies and a minority rights organisation.

The blockade, lasting from 11:00am to 1:30pm, stopped movement through the high traffic intersection and led to congestion on nearby streets.

“We will submit a formal memorandum to the prime minister’s office on Thursday,” said Minority Rights Movement's Pradeep Chandra. “We will then gather at the Shahbagh intersection at 9am on Friday and march to Nasirnagar. We will not stop protesting until our demands are met.”

The organisers then outlined a series of six demands, including the removal and punishment for the local MP Muhammed Sayedul Hoque and other officials to be brought to justice for ‘negligence’.

Other demands include the creation of a ministry for minorities and an independent minority commission, financial support for rebuilding the homes and religious sites of minorities victimised by attacks, financial compensation to the victims, and fair and swift trials for the attackers and their provocateurs.

The students called off the blockade after the Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique arrived at the scene around 1:15 pm.

Fifteen temples and more than a hundred Hindu homes were ransacked on Oct 30 over an alleged Facebook post insulting Islam. The local authorities have since been criticised for negligence.

The Hindus came under attack after ‘incendiary comments’ were made from a demonstration held outside the Brahmanbarhia Press Club in protest of the social media post.

UNO Moazzem and Nasirnagar police OC Abdul Kader were present at the gathering. The two were later withdrawn.

Five days into the attack, a mob turned on to Hindus in Nasirnagar again on Nov 4, torching houses and temples.

On Nov 13, unidentified attackers set fire to fishing nets in a house of a Hindu fisherman. The victim initiated a case with the Nasirnagar police.