The protests triggered by a recent attack on a national minority students’ demonstration continued for the fourth day in a row on Saturday with the demand for identifying all the attackers.
National minority students, their supporters and general public demanded immediate arrest of those who swooped on the demonstration pressing for the reinstatement of the word ‘Adivasi’ in the textbooks in front of the NCTB Bhaban in the capital on January 15.
The protesting national minority students held a protest rally in Dhaka on Saturday, vowing to continue their movement until their demands for restoration of the word ‘Adivasi’ in the textbooks, their constitutional recognition and immediate action against the attackers were met.
A section of Dhaka University teachers also held a demonstration in the capital on the day, condemning the attack on the national minority students.
Protest rallies were held in Tangail, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Natore under the banner of Sangkhubdhho Adivasi Chhatra-Janata (aggrieved indigenous students-people).
More than a dozen, mostly students, protesting under the banner of Sangkhubdhho Adivasi Chhatra-Janata, were injured in two attacks by the Students for Sovereignty, an organisation claimed to be of Dhaka University students, in front of the NCTB Bhaban on January 15 in police presence.
Recently the National Curriculum and Textbook Board removed a graffiti carrying the word ‘Adivasi’ from the back cover of the Bangla grammar book for the Classes of IX and X, following demand from the Students for Sovereignty.
Next day on January 16, at least seven individuals, mostly students, were injured when the police swooped on a protest rally held in protest of the attack in the capital.
The Saturday protest rally of Sangkhubdhho Adivasi Chhatra-Janata was held at the Raju Memorial Sculpture on the Dhaka University campus in the afternoon.
Alik Mree, one of the organisers, demanded the government to identify and arrest all the attackers and ensure their exemplary punishment.
He also said that the state must bear the victims’ all treatment cost.
Mentioning that the government proposed them for a meeting, he said that they would sit with them.Â
‘But if they do not meet our demands we will call for greater movement,’ he warned.
At the rally Dhaka University anthropology professor Zobaida Nasreen, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front president Mukta Baroi, Bangladesh Chhatra Union president Mahir Shahriar Reza, Bangladesh Jasod’s student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League’s president Goutam Shil, Bangladesh Chhatra Federation general secretary Saikat Arif, Pahari Chhatra Parishad leader Ovi Chakma, Bangladesh Garo Students Union organising secretary Satirtho Chibang, and Hajong Students Council member secretary Nayeem Hajong expressed solidarity with their protest being present at the rally.
The University Teachers’ Network held a protest rally at Manik Mia Avenue in the morning condemning the attacks on the national minority students and their supporters on January 15–16.
A case was filed against 16 people with the Motijheel police on Friday over the attack on the national minority protesters on January 15, following which two men were arrested.
Bikkhubdo Nagorik Samaj is scheduled to hold a rally at Shhabagh today at 3:00pm, protesting at the attack on the national minority students and removal of the word Adivasi from the textbook.
