News Flash
By Md Mamun Islam
RANGPUR, July 29, 2025 (BSS) – As the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement grew stronger every day, the then fascist Awami League regime continued to make reckless arrests despite relaxing the curfew in Rangpur division for 16 hours on July 30 last year.
Law enforcement and intelligence agencies continued to exert extreme pressure on student coordinators and activists to withdraw the movement in Rangpur on July 30, as they had done the days before, to ensure the dominance of the fascist regime.
Even after the curfew was relaxed for 16 hours, from 6am to 10pm, on that day, a suppressed panic prevailed among the common people who did not leave their homes except for urgent needs such as collecting food and medicine.
On the other hand, thousands of more people, including teachers, guardians, women, and cultural activists, were preparing to take to the streets and join the student-mass movement to ring the final bell of the fascist regime, seeking change.
Student coordinators of Begum Rokeya University and fellow fighters of martyr Abu Sayeed continued to coordinate among them by resorting to alternative means as internet services were down, making it almost impossible to communicate with each other.
The student coordinators and pro-movement political activists were still forced to remain in hiding as the fascist regime, along with police and Awami terrorists, unleashed a reign of terror in Rangpur city through mass arrests and enforced disappearances.
After the death of Begum Rokeya University student Abu Sayeed in police firing on July 16, the student movement in Rangpur city took an overwhelming form with the participation of thousands of people and the situation went out of the fascist regime’s control.
In such a situation, curfew was relaxed in eight districts of Rangpur division. However, the crackdown continued, as police kept detaining innocent students and civilians by identifying them from video footage.
By nightfall, a total of 192 people had been arrested in 22 cases filed within Rangpur metropolitan area. Police admitted to arresting at least 65 leaders and activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami from across Rangpur district.
Outside the metropolitan area, another 490 people were arrested across Rangpur, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, and Panchagarh districts. Among them, 65 were arrested in Rangpur and five in Kurigram.
According to a press release issued by Rapid Action Battalion on that day, 43 individuals were arrested from various parts of Rangpur division. Of them, 11 were from Rangpur metropolitan area, 29 from Nilphamari, and three from Gaibandha district.
Rahamat Ali, a student coordinator at Begum Rokeya University and a fellow fighter of martyr Abu Sayeed, said that students were facing great difficulty in communicating due to the internet shutdown.
“Along with all the organs of the fascist regime, Awami terrorists were threatening the lives of student coordinators, revolutionary activists and the public with murder, mass arrests and enforced disappearances in Rangpur city,” he said.
“However, we carried out our activities from hiding on July 30, like the past few days, even at the risk of our lives, to organize students and make it possible to strengthen the movement to overthrow the tyrannical regime of fascist Hasina,” he added.