Chhatra Shakti withdraws blockade from Shahbagh after 3 hours
The student body initiated the blockade at around 12:30pm.
After nearly three hours of blocking Shahbagh, leaders of Jatiya Chhatra Shakti announced the end of their blockade programme for the day.
Jatiya Chhatra Shakti Central President Zahid Ahsan said the organisation would stage another Shahbagh blockade on 17 December with the same demands.
Criticising remarks made by the chief election commissioner, the organisation's General Secretary Abu Bakar Majumdar said, "No one in Bangladesh carried out the July revolution to be shot at. We shed blood in July to say no to that culture. The election commissioner must withdraw his statement and apologise."
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Following the Shahbagh blockade, leaders and activists of Jatiya Chhatra Shakti joined an all-party resistance rally organised by Inqilab Mancha at the Central Shaheed Minar.
The student body initiated the blockade at around 12:30pm. They cited the interim government's failure to arrest the shooters of Sharif Osman Hadi, a figure of the July Uprising and spokesperson for the Inqilab Mancha, as well as the overall deterioration of law and order across the country as the reasons for their protest.
Shaheed Minar rally
Meanwhile, a rally has begun at the Central Shaheed Minar in protest of the shooting attack intended to kill Sharif Osman Hadi.
Ahead of 3pm, leaders of various organisations and members of the public started gathering at the rally venue.
On the ground, participants were seen arriving with banners and festoons, demanding the immediate arrest of those involved in the attack and exemplary punishment for the perpetrators.
JU students stage sit-in
Jahangirnagar University students staged a sit-in this afternoon (15 December) at the Shaheed Minar premises, demanding the arrest and exemplary punishment of those responsible for an attack on Osman Hadi and calling for the repeal of anti-national laws.
The event was organised by Jatiya Chhatra Shakti, the university unit of the student organisation.
Organisers said the attack on Hadi was not merely an assault on an individual but a threat to the country's democracy, security and political rights.
They criticised the authorities for failing to take visible and effective action against the attackers, claiming that this inaction was reinforcing a culture of impunity in the country.
Sharif Osman Hadi, a likely independent candidate for the Dhaka-8 constituency, was shot in the head by assailants in the Paltan area on 12 December and remains in critical condition.
An air ambulance of Osprey Aviation landed in Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport today.
The aircraft landed at 11:22am and is scheduled to depart with Osman Hadi for Singapore at 1:30pm.
