A group of students on Friday gave the authorities a 48-hour ultimatum to arrest the killers of Shahriar Alam Shammo, a Dhaka University student, as the protests over the killing of Shahriar continued for the third consecutive day on Friday on the DU campus.
Shahriar, a student of the Institute of Education and Research, died in an attack by miscreants in the Suhrawardy Udyan area on May 13 night.
The protesting students said that even after 72 hours of the incident, the law enforcement agencies could not arrest the person who stabbed Shahriar, who was also a leader of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
They also laid siege to the Shahbagh police station for about one and a half hours and threatened to announce tougher movement tomorrow if the real perpetrators were not arrested within 48 hours.
On the same day, the JCD鈥檚 Dhaka University unit held a prayer session for Shahriar, seeking salvation of his departed soul.
Under the banner of Bangladesher Shadharon Chhatra Somaj, the protesters gathered at the base of the Anti-Terrorism Raju Memorial sculpture on the DU campus at about 11:00am on Friday and held a brief rally there.
They demanded immediate arrest of the persons who killed Shahriar, fair trial and safe campus.
After the rally, they marched towards the Shahbag police station and laid siege to the police station at about 11:45am. They staged a sit-in there and left the spot at about 1:30pm.
Mashior Rahman Shuvo, a postgraduate student at the Institute of Education and Research and a classmate of Shahriar, said that they would announce more programmes on Sunday, if the real perpetrators were not arrested within the next 48 hours.
The protesters chanted different slogans, including 鈥榃hy are the killers free? What is the administration doing?鈥�, and 鈥榃hy did my brother die? Shahbagh police must answer!鈥�
Ibrahim Munshi, a student of the Institute of Education and Research who joined the sit-in at Shahbagh, said that even after 72 hours of the murder, the person who stabbed Shahriar had not been arrested.
A delegation of the teachers and students of the institute went to the Shahbagh police station for discussion.
The DU unit JCD held the prayer session for Shahriar after Asr prayers on Friday at the university鈥檚 central mosque.
Following the prayer session, they brought out a procession which started from the Central Library and concluded in front of the vice-chancellor鈥檚 residence.
The JCD on Thursday demanded the resignation of the university vice-chancellor, Professor Niaz Ahmed Khan, and proctor Saifuddin Ahmed for their failure to ensure safety and security of the students on the campus.
DU authorities also declared May 15 as mourning day and suspended classes and examinations till 1:00pm on the day over the death of Shahriar.
A section of students, however, boycotted classes and examinations for full day on the day.
The police on May 14 arrested three people in connection with the killing and a Dhaka metropolitan magistrate court sent them to jail. The arrested people were identified as 鈥榦utsiders鈥� by the police.
The university authorities on May 14 formed a seven-member committee to probe the death.
