Progressive students bloc of Jahangirnagar University (JU) put a barricade on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway for around an hour on Friday, demanding immediate release of Prothom Alo’s arrested reporter Shamsuzzman Shams, a former student of the university.
Earlier, they staged a demonstration at the university’s Murad Chattar and later moved to the highway, causing a long tailback on both sides of the highway.
JU’s Sangskrikit Jote President Soumik Bagchi and Chattra Union Organising Secretary Ali Mahmud among others spoke at the protest programme on the highway.
Soumik Bagchi said journalist Shams voiced the words of thousands of people of the country through the day-labour Zakir's quote ("Our fish, meat and rice need to be freed").
“We didn’t see the rules of the British and Yahya but today we are seeing their ghosts,” he said.
The progressive leader threatened that the country will witness another mass upsurge once more courage is shown to control mouths of people through the Digital Security Act.