A cross-section of people, including teachers, parents, civil society members, and cultural organisations, have joined the students in expressing solidarity with their demand to ensure justice for killings in the recent quota reform protests and end wholesale arrests.聽
Thousands of people, which also included journalists, lawyers, politicians, student wings of political parties, and expatriate Bangladeshis, changed their profile pictures on various social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, using a red colour following a call made by protesting students.聽
The Student Movement Against Discrimination on Monday urged students and people from all walks of life to take photos in solo or groups, covering their faces and eyes with red clothes, and share those online as the next move of the protests rejecting a government morning announcement for Tuesday.聽
Many men and women were seen on Tuesday joining protests in different places clad in red dresses, while some people also masked their faces and foreheads with red fabrics.
Students defied obstacles to block roads and brought out processions in several areas, including Khulna and Kishoreganj, to press home their nine-point charter of demands, including an unconditional apology from prime minister Sheikh Hasina by taking responsibility for the recent killings.聽
The other demands included the removal of certain ministers from government and party, the sacking of police officials responsible for the killing, and their trial.
Students have announced a fresh programme titled 鈥楳arch for Justice鈥� for Wednesday, which included marches towards courts, rallies on campuses, and on roads across the country demanding United Nations investigations into the mass killings, wholesale arrests, attacks, cases, and disappearances.
Abdul Hannan Masud, a coordinator of the platform, announced the new programme through a press release on Tuesday.
The protest will also press their nine-point charter of demands, according to the press release.
Parents held a rally on the Dhaka Medical College Hospital premises on Tuesday morning, demanding justice for the killings of their children.
During the rally, a mother was seen holding a placard that read, 鈥榃hy Did You Kill My Children.鈥� The police did not allow the group聽 to stay long on the DMCH premises.聽
In the Gulistan area of the capital, cultural activists held a rally under the banner of 31 cultural organisations and demanded the resignation of the government for killing students and mass people during the quota reform movement.
They also demanded the withdrawal of the ongoing curfew, the end of mass arrests and cases, and the harassment of people in the country.
Police barricaded the cultural activists as they attempted to march towards Bahadur Shah Park in Old Dhaka from Noor Hossain Square at about 3:30pm.
Some cultural activists opted to break open the police barricade, leading to a skirmish.
The cultural activists later performed on the streets, singing songs and reciting poems.
Teachers of different universities, including Jahangirnagar and Rajshahi University, staged demonstrations protesting at police killings, arrests, and repression for the second consecutive day on Tuesday.
A total of 38 JU teachers, under the banner of Teachers鈥� Community Against Oppression, brought out the procession from the university鈥檚 central Shaheed Minar at about 12:45pm with their faces tied with red ribbons.
Addressing the rally, JU anthropology professor Saed Ferdous said that the quota reform protest was nothing but a voice raised against the government鈥檚 failure to ensure human rights, democracy, and a hunger-free state.
JU philosophy professor Raihan Ryhne compared the midnight block raids with the Pakistani occupation forces鈥� raids, arrests, and torture during the War of Independence in 1971.
Pro-Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawyers brought out a protest procession on the High Court premises, covering their faces and foreheads with red ribbons to express solidarity with the protesting students.聽
Students鈥� protests that had been continuing since early July seeking reform in quotas for government jobs turned violent following an attack on protesters by the ruling party student body, the Bangladesh Chhatra League, on July 15.
The resulting backlash prompted the government to launch a brutal crackdown on protesters, leaving at least 213 killed in clashes and their aftermath between July 16 and July 29.
On July 19, the government called in the army and announced a curfew to restore order.
The curfew has since been relaxed from time to time.
Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, after a high-level meeting at the secretariat on Tuesday, told reporters that the curfew would remain relaxed from 7:00am to 8:00pm in Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, and Narsingdi from Wednesday to Saturday.
The minister said that the decisions of the other districts would be taken by the respective deputy commissioners.