Members of the Awami League and its affiliated organisations started holding processions and demonstrations on the highways and streets in several districts Saturday midnight, in protest against the governmentโs brutality in Gopalganj.
They chanted slogans to demand the resignation and punishment of murderous Muhammad Yunus and his gang, urging the people to raise their voices against injustice.
They also burned effigies and portraits of Yunus.
GOPALGANJ MASSACRE: Countrywide protest Thursday, โLong March to Jamunaโ soon
According to party sources, the Dhaka metropolitan south unit Awami League brought out a procession at Jatrabari.
In Narayanganj, a torch procession was held on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway by Chhatra Leagueโs district and metropolitan units.
The Gazipur metropolitan unit of Chhatra League staged a demonstration on the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway after midnight.
In Narsingdi, the Awami League activists blocked a road by burning tires.
On the other hand, the Sylhet district unit of Chhatra League blocked the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway and chanted slogans against the fascist regime.
In the Nashasan Majhirhat area of Naria Upazila in Shariatpur, the Chhatra League leaders and activists held a demonstration with 10 to 12 motorcycles on the Dhaka-Shariatpur Road. They blocked the movement of vehicles on the road by uprooting trees and burning jute sticks and tires.
They raised various slogans about Sheikh Hasina, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Awami League, and Chhatra League.
In Chakaria of Cox’s Bazar, some leaders and activists of the Chhatra League and Jubo League protested by burning tires on the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar Highway at around 12:30am.
Videos of the protest have gone viral on social media. Some people are seen pouring petrol on some tires at the gate of Chakaria Government College and setting them on fire. Some of them are wearing helmets. On one side of the highway, tires were burning, while on the other, buses were moving smoothly.
On Thursday, Bangladesh Awami Jubo League, Bangladesh Awami Swechchhasebak League, Jatiya Sramik League, and Bangladesh Chhatra League jointly called for a nationwide morning-evening hartal.
Later, the Bangladesh Awami League and the Bangladesh Krishak League issued statements in support of the hartal and called on all leaders, activists, and freedom-loving people to observe the hartal.
In support of Sunday’s hartal, the Sheikh Hasina Sangram Parishad has declared a remittance shutdown. Parishad President Tofazzel Hossain Ronu and General Secretary Mohammad Salauddin called for the shutdown in a press release on Friday.
On Wednesday, Bangladesh saw horrific killings of four people and injuries to at least 25 others from gunshots as the army and the police opened fire, centring on a rally of fascist Yunusโ National Citizen Party (NCP). Another bullet-hit injured person died in Dhaka on Friday.
The Gopalganj General Hospital authorities did not conduct autopsies of the four victims.
Moreover, the Awami League and human rights organisations put the number of deaths between 11 and 21, alleging that the security forces have concealed dead bodies.
Since the killings, the government declared an indefinite curfew, and joint forces started raiding homes at night, creating a reign of terror.
The people of different areas of Gopalganj built resistance since Wednesday morning, as the NCP leaders had been threatening to demolish the mausoleum of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, at Tungipara, around 19km from the town.
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