Students staged demonstrations in Dhaka and Rajshahi for road safety following recent fatal accidents.
Students resumed their protests demanding safe roads at Rampura Bridge area in Dhaka on Friday three days after the death of a Rajshahi University student and injury to another in a road accident at Rajshahi University on Tuesday night.
Rajshahi University fine arts students held a painting programme on campus protesting at road accidents across the country, including the death of the university’s graphic design, crafts and history of art department student Mahmud Habib Himel in a hit-and-run accident.
In Dhaka, students held a sit-in blocking traffic on a portion of DIT Road, chanted slogans, displayed placards and wrote their demands on the road.
The programmes intended to press their 11-point demand was held from 11:00am to 12:00pm.
Khilgaon Model College student Sohagi Samia said, ‘We took to the streets to press our 11-point demand as we did earlier. We staged demonstrations seeking justice for our brother and Rajshahi university student Himel who killed in a road accident.’
She said that transport owners were charging extra than the governmentset fares in absence of proper monitoring.
‘We want the government to ensure unconditional half-fare for students 24 hours round the year in all buses and other public vehicles,’ she added.
She said that they would form a human chain and draw alpana on roads at 4:00pm on February 11.
Another protester said that deaths in road accidents were still continuing for the lack on effective measures.
He said that no one in the government was paying heed to their demands.
New Age correspondent in Rajshahi reported that students of Rajshahi University’s fine arts faculty on Friday did paintings portraying the brutal incident as a symbolic protest against Himel’s murder.
Al Amin Ronak, a master’s student of painting, oriental art and printmaking department said that some of them drew the whole picture of the event while some drew painting on road accidents happening across the country.
‘It was our symbolic protest against the killings on road across the country,’ he said, adding that they would hold an art exhibition on Himel later.
Mahmud Habib Himel, a fourth-year student of graphic design, crafts and history of art department of the university, was crushed to death and another injured as a truck ran over their motorcycle in front of Shaheed Habibur Rahman Hall of the university on Tuesday night.
The RU authorities, meanwhile, removed acting proctor M Leaket Ali, an assistant professor, from the post of proctor over the death of the student.
A case was filed.
The road safety protests saw a renewal in 2021 after 2018 a day after Notre Dame College student Nayeem Hasan was killed by a running Dhaka South City Corporation dustcart in the capital’s Gulistan area on November 24, 2021 and the demonstration spread to Rampura after a Secondary School Certificate examinee of Ekramunnesa Boys High School, Mainuddin Islam, was crushed to death by a bus of Anabil Paribahan on November 29, 2021.
The demands included road safety, speedy justice and adequate compensation for students and other victims of road accidents, half fare for students in all public transports and safety for female commuters in public transports.
Their demands also include the construction of bus stops and parking spaces in a planned way, strict implementation of relevant laws, licensing of all drivers after training, creation of a modern traffic system and accountability of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority through proper monitoring.
Protesters also demanded appointment of two drivers and two assistants for each bus and a maximum six-hour workday for drivers and their assistants and ensuring appointment letter to transport workers and cancellation of contractual appointment of such workers.
The government on December 12 issued a notification, which was published in the Bangladesh Gazette, setting half fare for students in private buses in only metropolitan cities with five conditions at a time when the agitating students vowed to continue demonstrations demanding half fare in all public transports across the country.
The Road Transport and Bridges Ministry on December 12 issued the notification, which was made available in the Road Transport and Highways Division website on December 13.
Thousands of students took to streets after their two fellows — two Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College students — were killed when a reckless driver drove a Jabal-e-Noor company bus off the road and ploughed through a crowd while competing with another bus of the same company at Kurmitola in Dhaka on July 29, 2018.
