Slogans ring out from mass protest gathering at Shaheed Minar

It started as a protest demanding reforms to the quota system for government jobs. Now parents, family members, and many others have joined students in filling Dhaka’s Central Shaheed Minar area.

By Saturday afternoon, a sea of people could be seen attending the rally called by the Anti-discrimination Student Movement. So many people had gathered together that there was little space to move. Heads stretched out as far as the eye can see, many wrapped in different coloured cloth.

Parents, guardians, friends, loved ones, and family members joined the students’ rally.

The crowd stretched from the Central Shaheed Minar past Dhaka Medical College Hospital and towards Dhaka’s Chankharpul.

In the east, it stretched beyond Doel Chattar and to the north, it passed Dhaka University’s Russell Tower.

The area reverberated with the chanting of slogans before any speeches were made. When someone came on the megaphone to shout a slogan, the rest of the crowd harmonised.

They called for the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and demanded justice for those who had been killed in the recent violence surrounding the quota protest movement.

Demonstrators took to the streets across Dhaka to protest the violence.

They gathered in areas across the city on Saturday in the Science Laboratory area, Mirpur, Shantinagar, Aftabnagar, Pragati Sarani, Badda, Rampura, and Shonir Akhra.

Many carried placards or raised national flags demanding an end to the shooting of protesters.

Police could be seen around the protests at all points along the protest.

The movement, which began with calls for quota reforms, has now begun calling for the head of government to step down.

On Saturday morning, Prime Minister Hasina said she was willing to sit with the protest coordinators for talks.

“The doors of the Ganabhaban are open,” she said. “I want to sit with the quota protesters. I want to hear what they have to say. I do not want clashes.”

In a post to his Facebook page at 2:15pm on Saturday, coordinator Nahid Islam wrote:

“One cannot ask a killer government for justice or sit for talks with them. The time to ask forgiveness has passed. When there was still time, the government conducted block raids to arrest and torture students. We will not come to any agreement while Akhtar Hossain, Arif Sohel, and others are detained by the government in jail.”

Asked to confirm the post, Nahid said: “I made the announcement in a Facebook status. Check it please.”