News Flash
DHAKA, July 16, 2025 (BSS) - On July 17 last year, quota reform protesters had declared a nationwide 'complete shutdown' for July 18, protesting the law enforcement agencies' attack on them while staging demonstration on Dhaka University (DU) campus following their pre-scheduled 'gayebana janaza' for six people killed on July 16.
"I declare a complete shutdown across the country for tomorrow, 18 July, to protest the police, BGB, RAB, and SWAT attacks on the peaceful student movements, and to press home our one-point demand for quota reform," Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, a key coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement, declared through a post on his personal Facebook account around 8pm on July 17 last year.
Asif, now an adviser of the interim government, also wrote that no establishments, apart from the hospitals and emergency services, would be allowed to open, and no vehicles, except ambulances, would be allowed to ply.
In his post, he urged students from all schools, colleges, universities, and madrasahs as well as guardians from across the country to make the shutdown a success.
Earlier, when students protesters across the country tried to hold their pre-scheduled 'gayebana janaza' and symbolic 'coffin procession' for the six people, including three students, killed on July 16, they faced resistance from the police as well as activists of Chhatra League, Jubo League and other wings of the then ruling Awami League.
The central venue for the janaza was the Raju Memorial Sculpture on DU campus. But when students from different halls of the university tried to reach the venue carrying symbolic coffins around 2:30pm, police obstructed and dispersed them by firing sound grenades.
Eventually, around 4pm, the student protesters performed the janaza in front of the Vice Chancellor's residence on DU campus and vowed to continue their movement until their demand is met. "We will not let this movement go in vain. We will not back down until our demands are met," the porters chanted in chorus.
After the janaza, when protesters attempted to move toward TSC with a procession by breaking through police barricades, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas and lobbed sound grenades at the protesters.
After the attack, Sarjis Alam, also a key-coordinator of the movement, reacted saying police attacked them blocking every entrance of the campus.
Besides, the government instructed all mobile operators to shutdown internet services nationwide.
Earlier, on the night of July 16, quota reform protesters retaliated to Chhatra League activists in all residential dormitories on DU campus and pushed them out of the halls while the protesters compelled the hall provosts of 14 halls to declare a ban on student politics within the halls.
The same night, the University Grants Commission (UGC) ordered the closure of all educational institutions and instructed students to vacate dormitories for security reasons.
Following the UGC order, DU Syndicate held an emergency meeting on July 17 and declared the university closure for a sine die, asking the students to vacate residential halls by 6pm on that day while the public universities across the country took similar decisions.
But the protesters rejected the universities' directive and vowed to continue the protest staying in their halls.
Around 5pm on the same day, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Additional Commissioner Harun-Ur-Rashid visited the TSC area on the DU campus and said, "Police have been authorized to evacuate the halls. No exceptions will be made if students fail to comply within the stipulated time."
That evening, the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressed the nation and urged students to wait for the court's final verdict, assuring them that justice would prevail and they would not be disappointed. But the protesters rejected her call.
Besides, the then Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque claimed that the quota reform movement had "fallen into the hands of anti-liberation forces," warning that "there was no time to sit idly anymore."
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader directed his party leaders and activists to be prepared, saying, "We are facing an attack on our existence. We must respond accordingly. Get organized in every ward."
Earlier, on the day (July 17), Abu Sayeed, the first martyrs of the quota reform movement on July 16, was laid to rest at his ancestral home in Pirganj, Rangpur in the morning, following his namaz-e-janaza at Jaforpara Kamil Madrasah ground. Besides, a gayebana janaza of Sayeed was also held later at his university- Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur.
Apart from gayebana janaza at DU, the funeral prayers in abstain was also held across the country including Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in the city.
BNP and its allies arranged the gayebana janaza at the north gate of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque defying police's obstruction.
However, despite the day (July 17) was a public holiday for Ashura, protests, road blockades and clashes were reported in at least 10 districts across the country while on that evening people from all walks of life made a stiff resistance in the city's Jatrabari area that played a catalyst role in the uprising until the final victory on August 5.
When police opened fire at the people, who took to the street protesting the attack on the demonstrators at DU during the funeral prayers in absentia, injuring at least six people, they initiated the resistance setting fire to the toll plaza at the Kajla end of the Mayor Hanif Flyover.
