The student movement which erupted after the death of a Notre Dame College (NDC) student Nayeem Hasan in road mishap has faced a dwindling momentum in a week.
NDC students took to the streets after Nayeem was killed and left the agitation following assurance of realizing their demands. However, another death of an SSC candidate at Rampura sparked another student movement in Shahbag and Rampura.
The spokespersons of the two platforms are now at a fix with their demands.
The Rampura protesters placed eleven-point demand while the protesters in Shahbag placed nine-point demand to ensure road safety.
Sohagi Samia, spokesperson of the 11-point protesters, said the road safety movement is not a new voice. It started in 2018. We held movement in disorganized way without any discussion between one another. But, now it seems to be a crack on the platform because, the demands are now not the same.
Enzamul Haque Ramim, who is leading the student demonstration in Shahbag, said “We have been holding demonstration since the beginning pressing home the demand of half pass and safe roads. We put our nine-point demands forward and those are not a new set of demands. We placed it in 2018. Now they (Rampura protesters) pressed 11-point demands which made us confused. Many of them are illogical.”
The ongoing movement kicked off for half fare at public buses after the fare was raised recent week. Students of various educational institutions including Badrunnesa College, Dhaka College and City College took to the streets in Baksibazar, Science Lab and Dhanmondi area for half fare.
Amid the movement an SSC examinee was killed in a road accident at Rampura area in the capital on November 29 which brought the agitation new pace.
Bus owners on following day declared to realize the demand of half pass, the student did not leave roads instead the road safety movement ignited again. The protesters placed 11-point demands.
“The biggest movement is now happening in Rampura. We placed the 11-point demands based on opinion of everyone. We made it 11-point because we found some irrelevant and deficient events in them,” Sohagi Samia said.
On the other hand Ramim says, his platform multiple times attempted to talk to the Rampura protesters but they paid no heed.
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