Joynal Abedin Khan :
People across the country continued to protest demanding justice over the killing of Comilla college student Sohagi Jahan Tonu.
With no remarkable progress, protests are surfacing everywhere in the country. General students and activists of different cultural and right organizations yesterday held massive protests nationwide through bringing out protest rallies and holding human chains to draw attention of the authorities.
They also blocked roads and key intersections demanding immediate arrest of the culprits for exemplary punishment. The killing of Tanu sparked protests everywhere as law enforcers could not trace the killers after seven days of the sensational murder.
Meanwhile, the Detective Branch (DB) of police has been given the charge of investigation in Tonu murder case as the local police could not unearth the mystery even in seven days.
“The case has been transferred to the DB police to speed up the investigation. We have got some clues and are now analysing those to solve the mystery behind the murder. We hope to arrest the real culprits as soon as possible,” Md Shah Abid Hossain, Superintendent of Police of Comilla, told The New Nation on Sunday.
Apart from the DB, elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is also investigating the case that has created much hype across the country.
In the capital, students and Ganjagaran Mancha activists blocked a key intersection at Shahbagh, brought out separate processions and marched to Comilla in protest. They have chanted various slogans demanding immediate arrest of Tonu’s killers.
In Comilla, students of different colleges, alongside Comilla Victoria College, the institution the victim belonged to, and Comilla University, took part in a protest blocking Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Nandanpur Bishwa Road in the monrning.
Later, the Ganajaran Manch activists joined the protest rally, demanding exemplary punishment of those responsible.
In Faridpur, students of four colleges participated in a human chain on Mujib Road in front of Faridpur Press Club from 11:00am to 11:30am raising the same demand.
In Laxmipur, ‘Priyo Laxmipur Jela’, a volunteer online organisation, formed a human chain in front of the district administrator’s office in the morning.
Earlier, protesters raise candles in front of National Parliament building on the first hour of Independence Day on Saturday, demanding justice for Tonu
Meanwhile, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said that the killers of Tanu will be tried.
He said this while responding to the journalists after an Independence Day programme at Razarbagh Police Lines in Dhaka held in honour of the police martyred in 1971 on Saturday morning.
“We have unearthed the mysteries of many big incidents. So, the mystery of Tonu murder will also be unearthed though it may take a little bit time,” said the minister.
The detectives and police are working together, he said adding that it will not right to comment in advance as the case is under investigation now.
On the other hand, RAB-11 chief Khorshed Alam said that the victim’s family members were brought to the RAB office for some information. He refused to disclose any further details about it.
Earlier, in a statement issued on Friday night, the army authorities said that they were providing full support to the police in investigating the murder case.
The statement issued by Inter-service Public Relations (ISPR) said that the unconscious body of Tanu was found in the bordering area of the cantonment by her father and he then informed the military police.
The body of Tonu, a second year history student of Victoria College, was found only 100 yards from their house inside the cantonment around 10:00pm on March 20. She was reportedly raped before being murdered while returning home from tuition.
Also, a team of RAB-11 took away Tonu’s parents, two brothers and paternal cousin around midnight on Friday for interrogation. They were later brought back to the house around 4:30am, sources said.
Alal Hossain, an uncle of Tonu, said that the RAB team had interrogated Tanu’s family members and also his daughter, who used to live in the same room with Tanu.
Sohagi Jahan Tonu, 19, a second year history student of Victoria College and a member of Victoria College Theatre, went missing on Sunday evening, hours after she had got out of her home at Comilla Mynamati Cantonment for private tuition.
Later, Tonu’s father Yar Hossain found his daughter senseless with severe injuries in her body at a bush adjacent to his home.
She was then whisked off to Combined Military Hospital where doctors declared her dead.
