Dhaka: Students from different colleges and universities on Tuesday called for a daylong student strike in all the educational institutions across the country on April 3, protesting at the murder of Comilla Victoria College student Sohagi Jahan Tonu.

They also announced to hold a rally at the foot of Raju Sculpture on the Dhaka University campus at 4pm.  

The announcement came from a demonstration staged by students of 15 colleges and universities, including Dhaka University, at Shahbagh intersection under the banner of ‘General Students’.

In the afternoon, hundreds of people, including students, blocked Shahbagh intersection, one of the busiest intersections in the city, demanding the arrest of the killers of Sohagi Jahan Tonu.

Witnesses said around DU 300 students formed a human chain at the intersection around 1pm, halting traffic in the area.

Later, more protesters from different educational institutions of the city joined the human chain, demanding that the government provide security and protection for women.

The angry students intercepted for a while a Bangladesh Army vehicle passing through the intersection.

They also brought out a procession from Shahbagh intersection which culminated at the starting point after parading ex-Hotel Ruposhi crossing.

The vehicular movement on the busy road returned to normalcy around 3:50 pm after the protesters withdrew their blockade considering people’s sufferings.

Over 200 policemen remained deployed in the area during the demonstration to avert any trouble.

Sohagi Jahan Tonu, 19, a second year history student of Victoria College and a member of Victoria College Theatre, went missing on March 20, hours after she had gone out of her house at Comilla Mynamati Cantonment for private tuition.

Later, Tonu's father, Yar Hossain, found his daughter lying senseless with severe injuries in her body in a bush adjacent to their house.

She was then whisked off to Combined Military Hospital where doctors declared her dead.