Arrest Zahidul's killers within 48 hours, demands BNP

Leaders and activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its associate fronts have condemned the murder of Primeasia University student Zahidul Islam Parvez and given a 48-hour ultimatum to the authorities concerned to arrest the accused.

Protesting the killing, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), youth front of BNP, organised protest rallies across the country on Monday, including Dhaka, and in front of Primeasia University where protesters including fellow students placed various demands, including justice for Zahidul.

From the rally held in front of Primeasia University, Dhaka South city unit BNP leader Ishraque Hossain issued a 48-hour ultimatum to arrest those involved in stabbing Zahidul to death.

Ishraque warned that a tougher agitation programme will be launched if the culprits are not immediately arrested.

Ishraque alleged that names of some leaders of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement have emerged in connection with this murder incident.

Pressure is being created so that the police do not arrest them and those who will obstruct their arrest will also be resisted, he warned.

He also alleged that some are still using the banner of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement for their own interest while 99 per cent, he claimed, left the platform after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted last August.

Speakers at the rally said there have also been reports of the involvement of local 'Benson Gang' members in the murder. They demanded arrest of the gang members.

Zahidul, 22, was killed in front of the university campus on Saturday over a 'suggestive' joke.

Zahidul, who hailed from Mymensingh, was a student of the university's textile engineering department.

Banani Police Station registered a case on Saturday night naming eight people in connection with the murder.

Police arrested three people conducting raids in different areas of the capital on Sunday night.

At a press conference at the BNP central office in Nayapaltan on Sunday, JCD President Rakibul Islam Rakib claimed that Zahidul was an active worker of the organisation's private university unit.

He blamed five leaders of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement for the murder.

The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement rejected Rakibul's allegation as a "disgusting lie".

The organisation's spokesperson Umama Fatema at a press conference on Sunday night accused JCD of running a misleading campaign against the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.

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