Students hold sit-in at Jagannath University to protest the killing of a Pir in Kushtia

Students at Jagannath University have held sit-in protests against the attack and arson on a shrine in Daulatpur upazila of Kushtia and the killing of Pir Shamim Reza, attacks on people of diverse sexual orientation in Shahbagh in the capital, and mob violence across the country.

The program was held in front of the 1971 genocide sculpture at the university on Monday. Students from various departments participated in the program. Participants raised various slogans against human rights violations, communal violence and lack of justice.

Speakers at the rally said that recent incidents are a manifestation of a worrying trend of intolerance and violence in society. Such attacks on people of different identities or beliefs are in no way acceptable.

Ivan Tahsib, president of the Socialist Student Front, who participated in the sit-in, said that fascism in the past was sustained by those who practiced politics of terror and occupation. If they do not reform now, their fate will be the same.

Sayedya Mubashira, a student of the English Department for the 2023-24 academic year, said, “Our Bangladesh is a country of many languages, many diversity and many nations, many religions and many genders. It has been like this for a long time, it is still there and it will be there in the future. But a extremist group is trying to attack our peace and harmony. We are holding a sit-in program against it so that the government takes necessary measures.”

Khizir Al Sifat, a student of the Department of Sociology for the 2023-24 academic year, said that the current reality of the state—the problems that are constantly occurring, such as the lack of security for people’s lives and property, the oil crisis—is not being discussed in parliament. There, one is blaming the other, turning parliament into a circus.

Speakers at the rally demanded a swift and impartial investigation to bring those involved in the attack to justice. They also urged the administration to take effective steps to prevent such incidents from recurring in the future.