Students block Farmgate in protest over classmate’s death

Students of Tejgaon College blocked the Farmgate intersection in Dhaka on Sunday, January 4, demanding justice for the murder of their classmate and the arrest of the suspects. The protest disrupted traffic on the road.

The students took to the streets around 10:30 am, according to Inspector Abdul Hannan of Tejgaon Police Station.

He said, “The students of Tejgaon College blocked the road at Farmgate, demanding justice for their murdered classmate and the arrest of the accused. I am at the scene, and traffic is temporarily halted.”

According to the protesting students, on 6 December a clash broke out between two groups of Chhatra Dal inside the Tejgaon College dormitory over drug consumption, leaving three students injured. Among them, Sakibul Hasan Rana, a student of the Higher Secondary Science Department, had been in the ICU for four days. He died around 12:30 pm on Wednesday (10 December).

They further alleged, “We believe our meritorious classmate, Sakibul Hasan Rana, was killed as a result of political violence, and now efforts are being made to cover it up. We were even denied permission to hold his funeral prayer on the college campus.”

Earlier, on the night of 6 December, a clash took place between a group of Tejgaon College students and a group of local outsiders. Rana sustained a serious head injury during the incident and was later admitted to Prashanti Hospital. He was a second-year student of the Higher Secondary Science Department and died on Wednesday afternoon while undergoing treatment.

However, family sources said his body was taken to his village home in Sreepur, Gazipur, without a post-mortem examination.