Student protester duo complete march from Dhaka to Sylhet

Two university students, who earlier took off from Dhaka to march to Sylhet in a show of protest against the rape of a woman on the hostel premises of Murari Chand (MC) College, have reached their destination. 

Arif Sohail, a second-year student of international relations at the Jahangir University and Kazi Mehedi Hasan, a second-year student of English literature at the University of Asia Pacific on Saturday reached Sylhet city on-foot to join a protest rally. 

They left Dhaka from the National Press Club premises Sunday. Their route on-foot took them though Narsingdi, Bhairab, Brahmanbaria, Madhabpur, Putijuri to finally reach Lalabazar Saturday morning.

In their journey, they met common people, conveyed messages of justice for women and joined in several anti-rape protests along the way.

“Everyone welcomed our march and helped us reach our destination. On our journey we spread our anti-rape messages to as many people as we could,” said Arif.

He said they tried to change preconceived notions regarding rape among people of remote areas who still blamed the girl for being raped and justified the incident by calling her attire inappropriate. 

Arif also said the families of rape survivors are often ousted by their society and so they tried to explain to those people why it was wrong. 

Mehedi said they walked during the day and stayed the nights at a hotel. Thus, after six nights, they reached Sylhet Saturday morning. 

On Saturday afternoon, they took part in a protest rally organized by students at MC College. They will leave for Dhaka on Sunday morning.