Students lift highway blockade after presenting 4-point demand over Apratim’s murder
Collected Photo
Students of Cumilla University (CoU) suspended their highway blockade two hours after launching a protest demanding justice for the murder of teenager Ishrat Shahriar Apratim. They presented a four-point demand to the authorities.
The students suspended the blockade around 1:30pm on Sunday. Earlier, around 11:30am, they blocked the highway in the Kotbari Bishwa Road area.
During the protest, the students chanted various slogans demanding the immediate arrest of those responsible for the murder and their exemplary punishment. The blockade disrupted traffic on the highway, causing long tailbacks.
The students’ demands include:
Arresting those involved in Apratim’s murder, completing the trial within 60 days, and executing the death sentences.
The withdrawal of the police superintendent of Cumilla and the officers-in-charge of Adarsha Sadar and Sadar Dakshin police stations after acknowledging responsibilities for their apparent failures.
Establishing a permanent police outpost on the Cumilla University campus and taking visible steps to improve law and order.
Establishing an immediate-response unit to ensure the safety of missing persons.
The students said that if effective steps were not taken promptly to implement their demands, they would announce stricter programmes in the future.
Cumilla Police Superintendent Md Anisuzzaman said at a press conference today that discussions had been held with students of Cumilla University. The students had withdrawn the highway blockade and returned to campus, he said.
Earlier, Apratim’s first funeral prayer was held at the central mosque field of Cumilla University at 10am. Following a second funeral prayer in Gandhamati, he was laid to rest.
Apratim went missing around 3pm on Friday. Nearly 21 hours later, his body was recovered on Saturday from a hillock in the West Sananda area, near Magic Paradise Park in Cumilla’s Sadar Dakshin upazila.
