The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement on Thursday staged 'Shahidi March' to mark the fall of the Awami League government and to honour those killed in the July-August protests.
The march, which began at 3:30 PM from the Anti-Terror Raju Memorial Sculpture at Dhaka University, drew participants from various professions, alongside students from different educational institutions in the capital.
Participants carried national flags, banners, and placards depicting the tragic events of July and August.
The participants marched in key locations such as Nilkhet, New Market, ScienceLab, Kalabagan, Dhanmondi, Sangsad Bhaban, Farmgate, Kawran Bazar, Shahbagh, and were concluded at the Central Shaheed Minar.
They also announced five demands, which include justice for the victims and financial and legal support to the families of the victims.
The program was announced the day prior in a press conference held at the Dhaka University Student-Teacher Center (TSC), with the SAD Movement coordinators leading the event.
The march stood as a solemn remembrance of those who lost their lives in the uprising and as a statement against discrimination and police brutality.
Expressing grief over the injured victims who have lost their limbs and eyes during the movement, Sarjis Alam, one of the coordinators of the movement, said: "We have organised the 'Shahidi March' to remember all our martyred brothers, and paying tribute to all the wounded."
BSS adds: The nation witnessed a new Bangladesh with unprecedented unity in last one month as the people scrambled to work in smoothly running the country in the changed situation after student-mass upsurge ending the Sheikh Hasina's 15 years autocratic rule, student coordinators said.
"The mass upsurge forged national unity that the country witnessed in the last 31 days after the fall of Sheikh Hasina's misrule", Hasnat Abdullah, a key coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.
He said the national unity formed through the student movement led people to tackle crises like flood hand to hand.
Hasnat said, "The country has never seen such unity what is witnessed in the last one month".
"The way people irrespective of their political ideologies or beliefs came forward to stand beside the flood victims keeping their utmost trust in the interim government and the Anti-discrimination student movement was very exceptional," he added.
In the last 31 days, people were seen waiting in the queue to donate for flood victims, sacrificing lives to save others while students were seen managing traffic, cleaning streets and painting graffiti, the student organiser said.
He said, "It was really amazing to see that people were spending sleepless night gathering in groups to maintain law and order situation".
Talking about the success, Hasnat said the first thing is that the country is freed from the clutches of an autocrat ruler through the student-people mass upsurge.
The interim government has now taken different initiatives for reform in various sectors such as government and semi government institutions, particularly the administration, he said, hoping, "Through this, the good governance will be established in the country".
Another key coordinator of Anti-Discrimination student Movement Abu Baker Majumder said, "When we shifted our nine-point demand to one point during the movement, then we emphasised two things that included closure of all possible ways of further emerging fascism and developing a system through which no fascism can emerge".
Baker touted the national unity as the most powerful thing behind the success of the mass upsurge and hoped that if the countrymen stay united, no fascism can further emerge and the reforms everyone is dreaming of will be definitely possible under the interim government.
Ahsan Labib, another coordinator from Jahangirnagar University said, "Even if Sheikh Hasina fled the country, her accomplices are trying to come back in different ways. So, we have to resist them by any means to achieve the ultimate goal of the mass upsurge".
"The future Bangladesh will be for the common people where citizens will express opinion freely. Everyone will have civic rights and the rights to vote. No one will face injustice. We dream of such Bangladesh and are working towards that goal", he ended.
The people who will be in power through election in future must remember that if anyone wants to stay in power denying people's will or snatching away people's voting rights he or she will have to face same consequences as Sheikh Hasina faced, said Abdur Rashid Jitu, another coordinator of Anti-Discrimination Student Movement of Jahangirnagar University.
It is definitely a thing of mental peace and relaxation for the countrymen as the nation is celebrating one month of the fall of autocratic and fascist Sheikh Hasina who fled the country to neighbouring India, he said.
"At the same time, we are also shocked as the students and the people are still suffering the wounds and damages caused by fascist Hasina," he added.
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