JU students stage demo, demand release journalist Shams

Students of Jahangirnagar University on Friday blocked the Dhaka-Aricha Highway demanding immediate release of Prothom Alo journalist Samsuzzaman Shams, who was arrested in a Digital Security Act case on Thursday.

Over one hundred students, under the banner of ‘Jahangirnagar University Students’, started a procession at about 2:30pm from the university's Murad Chattar area.

Before leaving the highway, the students said that if Shamsuzzaman is not released in Sunday's hearing, they will carry out a tougher movement. Moreover, considering that it is Ramadan month, everyone is fasting, today we canceled our program.

The agitating students chanted slogans such as ‘Scrap DSA’, ‘Free Shams, free media’, ‘Give us the freedom of fish, meat, and rice’, ‘people will answer to the batons, bullets and tear shells’ etc.

They also raised slogans for scrapping the much-debated Digital Security Act, along with reducing the prices of essential commodities. After the students left the highway, things went back to normal.

Shams, nearly 35 hours after he was picked up from the Savar residence, was produced before a Dhaka court yesterday that sent him to jail in a case filed with Ramna Police Station.

He was sued in another DSA case with Tejgaon Police Station a couple of hours before he was picked up early on Wednesday.