Students against hate attacks block road at Shahbagh

Students have blocked roads at Dhaka’s Shahbagh to protest against recent hate attacks in Brahmanbarhia and other parts of Bangladesh.

More than 500 hundred protestors began demonstrating around 12:00pm Friday.

They came under the banners of Hindu student organisations based in Dhaka University. Other organisations and regular people have also joined the demonstration. 

Traffic movement in the area has stopped due to their presence.

Vehicles were stuck in traffic jams - from the National Press Club, Matsya Bhaban to Ruposhi Bangla intersection, Katabon and on the university campus – despite Friday being a weekend. Buses were taking other routes to the university campus.     

An effigy of Fisheries Minister Sayedul Hoque who represents Brahmanbarhia’s Nasirnagar in Parliament was burnt by the protestors who hold him responsible for the Oct 30 attack on Hindu temples and homes.  

They demanded his immediate resignation as minister. Some of the placards they carried, read – ‘Is it a crime to be born Hindu?’, ‘Is leaving home the only way?’.

Hindu students of Dhaka University took out a march outside the Jagannath Hall around 10am against recent incidents of attacks on religious minorities.

The procession passed TSC and Doyel Chattar before reaching the National Press Club.

Several organisations, already present in the location, joined the students’ procession and marched with them to Shahbagh.

Organisations that were holding protests against communal violence outside the Naitonal Museum also joined in.

“It is said that Bangladesh is a secular country. Is this blockade a proof of that? A secular country cannot have communal elements. If the government has secular ideals, let them prove it,” Priyanka Bose Kanta, a lecturer of law at Dhaka University, told a protest rally.     

“Hindus faced terrible abuse when the country was fighting for its liberation. The secular nation promised by the nation’s father is still not a reality. It’s unfortunate how Hindus in this country are still facing abuse,” student Manik Rakkhit told the rally.