The Anti-discrimination Student Movement leaders on August 2 last year declared a nationwide demonstration scheduled for August 3 and a non-cooperation movement from August 4, to protest the killings and press home their pre-declared nine-point demand, including an apology from the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina, reports BSS.
Mahin Sarker, a coordinator of the quota reform movement, made the announcement through a Whatsapp message that night, urging the people from all walks of life to join programmes.
Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, a key-coordinator of the movement and now an adviser to the interim government, had also shared the same message while Abdul Hannan, another coordinator, in a Facebook live declared that they would stage demonstrations nationwide on August 3.
He said an all-out non-cooperation movement would be observed from August 4 while no one would pay taxes and utility bills.
The Bangladesh Secretariat and all government and private offices would remain closed while no vehicle would be allowed to enter the Prime Minister's official Gonobhaban residence and the President's official residence Bangabhaban.
Urging all not to cooperate with the then government, Hannan called upon the country's people to carry out those programmes so that the then government could no longer function.
Earlier that day, six movement coordinators Nahid Islam, Sarjis Alam, Hasnat Abdullah, Asif Mahmud, Nusrat Tabassum, and Abu Baker Mojumder, who were released from Dhaka Metropolitan Police's (DMP) Detective Branch custody on August 1. In a joint statement they vowed to continue their protests, seeking justice for the killings during the movement.
Though police had claimed that student leaders were taken to DB custody for their security, the coordinators said they had never sought any protection from police and thus their detention was 'unconstitutional and unlawful.'
The coordinators said they staged a hunger strike from July 30 in the custody, but it was kept secret from their families while they were forced to sit at the dining table at the detective office.
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