Students block Shahbagh, protest at Tonu murder

Two left leaning students’ alliances -- Progressive Students’ Alliance and Anti-Imperialist Students’ Union - are observing countrywide half-day strike on Sunday protesting at the government's failure to arrest the killers of Sohagi Jahan Tonu, reports news agency UNB.

Activists of the left students’ organisations took position at Shahbagh intersection of the city around 6:00am and blocked the route, which halted vehicular movement in the area.

Progressive Students’ Alliance and Anti-Imperialist Students’ Union coordinator Ashraful Alam Sohel said at one stage of the protest, police charged batons on the students, leaving at least 30 students injured.

Police also detained twenty students, he added.

Meanwhile, students of other public universities took position in front of their respective campuses in support of the strike.

The two left leaning alliances announced the strike at a joint press conference of Progressive Students’ Alliance and Anti-Imperialist Students’ Union at Dhaka University on Saturday afternoon.

Earlier on 7 April, they threatened to enforce a half-day countrywide strike on 25 April if the government fails to arrest the killers of Comilla Victoria College student Sohagi Jahan Tonu by 24 April.

Sohagi Jahan Tonu, 19, a second year history student of Comilla Victoria College and a member of Victoria College Theatre, went missing on 20 March, hours after she had gone out of her house at Comilla Mainamati Cantonment for private tuition.

Later, Tonu’s father Yaar Hossain found his daughter lying senseless with severe injuries in her body in a bush adjacent to their house.

She was then whisked off to Combined Military Hospital where doctors declared her dead.

The incident sparked off widespread protests across the country.