Students of Bindubasini Government Boys’ High School in Tangail staged a protest after alleging that they were forced to attend a political rally organized by the National Citizens` Party (NCP), skipping their regular classes.
The protest, organized by both current and former students, took place on Wednesday (20 July). Students marched through key roads of the city and held a protest rally at the Tangail Press Club, chanting slogans and condemning the incident.
Saiful Bari, a current 10th-grade student of the school, claimed that on Tuesday morning, NCP representatives entered classrooms without permission and forcefully took students to their July Rally. “At one point, teachers got into an argument with the NCP leaders. Eventually, the school had to be dismissed early,” he said. “We don’t even have voting rights yet—why are we being taken to political events? We strongly protest this.”
Former student Tanzil Ahmed called the incident “shameful,” saying, “We had never seen students being dragged out of class for a political event before. We demand punishment for those responsible and a public apology. Otherwise, we will launch stronger protests.”
In response to the allegations, Masudur Rahman Russell, the district coordinator for NCP, denied any official instruction to involve students and said, “We sincerely apologize to both current and former students on behalf of the NCP. We’ve assured them that such an incident will not be repeated, and we`ve also expressed regret to the school authorities.”
On Tuesday morning, NCP organized a city march starting from Shamsul Haque Gate in Tangail. It concluded with a rally at Nirala Morh, featuring speeches from top party leaders including Convener Nahid Islam, Regional Coordinators Sarjis Alam and Hasnat Abdullah, and others.
To ensure security for the event, nearly 900 police personnel were deployed across the city.
