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.

The movement will spread across the country unless the arrested journalist is sent back to his mother immediately, he said.

Taposi Dey, a 47th batch student of the university, alleged, “The state closes our mouths when we voice our needs.”

She threatened that they would go for a tougher movement unless Shamsuzzaman is released by Sunday.

On March 29, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) men picked up Shams from his residence in the Ambagan area, adjacent to Jahangirnagar University, around 4:30 am. The same day, a Jubo League leader filed a case under the DSA against Shams, accusing him of publishing a "false and fabricated report" in Prothom Alo.

A Dhaka court on Thursday sent the Prothom Alo reporter to jail in the case filed under Digital Security Act after rejecting his bail petition.