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The Student Movement Against Discrimination launched a ‘Resistance Week’ program on Tuesday to press home four demands, including the formation of a special tribunal to ensure a speedy trial of murders committed by ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her government using fascist structures. 

The ‘Resistance Week’ began at about 3:00pm with a gathering at the base of the anti-terrorism Raju Memorial Sculpture at Dhaka University, followed by a road march through the university’s halls and Fuller Road.

The road march concluded at the central Shaheed Minar with a one-minute silence in the memory of those killed in recent protests.

Two of the key coordinators of the movement, Sarjis Alam and Hasnat Abdullah, announced the demands, which also included prosecution of those who participated in the Awami League and its grand alliance partners’ planned killing, robbery, and looting against religious minorities to discredit the mass uprising as well as addressing the legitimate demands of the minorities. 

The demand also included the removal and immediate prosecution of those officials in the administration and judiciary who had legitimised attacks, lawsuits, and killings during student movements and repeatedly attempted to establish fascism.

The platform also demanded equal opportunities for those who had been subjected to discrimination in the administration and judiciary. 

During the road march, participants chanted slogans seeking the death penalty for deposed prime minister Hasina for ordering the killing of students and others.

Former social services secretary of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union, Akhtar Hossen, said that an attempt was being made to nullify revolution through counter-revolution.

‘We have announced the Resistance Week program to counter this.’ 

¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· correspondent in Rajshahi reported that several hundred students of various educational institutions held their scheduled ‘Resistance Week’ and road march programmes with the same demands, aiming to resist the AL’s all kinds of ‘conspiracies’.

Under the banner of Student Movement Against Discrimination, the students first staged a demonstration for 30 minutes at Talaimari crossing and later marched to Shah Makhdum College, where one of their fellow protesters was killed on August 5, allegedly by AL and Jubo League men. 

By blocking the one-way Dhaka-Rajshahi highway in front of Shah Makhdum College, Golam Kibria Meshkat Chowdhury, one of the central coordinators of the movement, observed that the Awami League was still dreaming of coming back to power over blood.

‘But we have to resist that,’ he said.

Another coordinator, Masud Rana, said that students would not leave the streets until the state was properly reformed.