Students from multiple institutions in Sylhet gather at SUST to protest nationwide arrests and killings

Staff Correspondent: General students of SUST organized a protest march against the nationwide abductions and arrests, coerced statements taken from movement coordinators under DB custody, and demanding withdrawal of false cases, where they were joined by fellow students from multiple institutions including MC College, Metropolitan University, Leading University, Madan Mohon College

Students gathered in front of the main gate of the university, marched briefly on the Sylhet-Sunamganj highway, and then held a rally in front of the main gate on Monday afternoon .

In the rally, Faisal, a student from the Sociology Department of SUST, said, “The autocratic government tried to suppress the movement by forcing false statements from the coordinators of the student movement at gunpoint. However, as long as even one of our brothers is alive, none of the tricks of this autocratic government will work.”

He further stated, “Those who have murdered Abu Sayed, our younger brother from the university, and all our fellow comrades, I want to make it clear to them: we do not seek justice for murder from the murderers. We have not come to seek justice for murder from the murderers. As Zahir Raihan said in ‘Arek Falgun,’ ‘Expand the prisons; in the coming spring, we will double in number.’ We want to tell you to turn all of Bangladesh into a prison.”

Faisal added, “If the government does not accept our nine-point demand, students will be forced to issue a single-point demand. If we issue a single-point demand, there will be no escape.”

At the protest rally, Tanzina Akter, a student of MC College, Sylhet, said, “This student movement has turned into a mass movement. From laborers to children as young as four years old have been martyred in this movement. As long as each murder is not accounted for, our movement will continue.”

During the protest rally, students chanted various slogans such as “Compromise or struggle? Struggle, struggle,” “My brother was killed, police will not be spared,” “Why did my brother die? We demand an answer from the administration,” “Why is there police on campus? We demand an answer from the administration,” “Light the fire, light the fire together, burn down the throne of the autocrat,” “One, two, three, four, Sheikh Hasina, leave the throne,” “Who are you, who am I, rajakar( traitor), rajakar, Who said, who said, autocrat, autocrat.”