Massive crowd gathers for ‘March for Unity’ event at Shaheed Minar

People are flocking in from all over the country for the event called by the Anti-discrimination Student Movement

The Anti-discrimination Student Movement’s “March for Unity” programme has kicked off at Dhaka’s Central Shaheed Minar.

Students and members of the public carrying banners, flags, and festoons began to gather at the historic monument from across Dhaka and the rest of the country on Tuesday morning for the event.

Though the programme was to officially start at 3pm, several thousand people had already gathered at the location early. The event eventually started at 4pm.

Those in the crowd chanted a number of slogans paying tribute to Abu Sayed and the martyrs of the July uprising, calling for justice over the violence in July and August, and speaking out against corruption and Indian influence in Bangladesh.

Security personnel from the police, dog squad, the Rapid Action Battalion, and the Detective Branch were stationed in the area.

A digital screen set up at the Shaheed Minar showed images of the July uprising and the oppression and persecution under the Sheikh Hasina regime.

Asif Mahtab, a college student who came to the rally from Dhaka’s Demra, said: “We have gathered according to the announcement. A Mujib-free Constitution will be written here. The light of the July Uprising Proclamation will render the Awami League irrelevant.”

Shafiqul Hossain, a student at Ideal School and College who came from Mirpur, said: “We will remember our martyred brothers lost in July. We have come here today with the aim of building the new Bangladesh that we want."

The Anti-discrimination Student Movement had said that it would announce its “July Uprising Proclamation” at the event. The organisation then called an emergency meeting early on Tuesday morning and announced that the interim government was preparing a similar proclamation and that they would support it.

However, the programme at the Shaheed Minar remains in place and a sense of what the proclamation will look like will be highlighted at the event.