Dhaka: Protest erupted outside of Bangladesh Supreme court against the removal of the sculpture of Lady Justice from the court compound.

Some workers started removing the statue at about on Thursday night and concluded the removal early on Friday. However, the sculptor Mrinal Huq was present during the removal work to ensure the statue was not damaged.

The protestors announced protest march at about 11:00am on Friday in front of Raju Sculpture in Dhaka University campus.

The Student Union general secretary Liton Nandi said we will gather under the banner of general people in front of the Raju Sculpture in Dhaka University campus at about 11:00am. Then we will bring out a protest procession towards the Supreme Court and took stand in front of the court premises.

Early on Friday, a crowd of protestors gathered outside the locked gate of the court’s compound to demonstrate against the statue’s removal.

Earlier, on February 2017, Hardline Islamists including Hefajat-e-Islam staged protests calling for the statue of Greek goddess installed at the Supreme Court to be destroyed or removed.

The sculpture of Themis, the blindfolded deity of justice and order, has ruffled feathers in the country since it was unveiled on December, 2016 on the premises of Bangladesh Supreme Court.

On April 2017, Earlier on April 8, a writ was filed with the High Court seeking removal of the statue from the Supreme Court premises.

According to the writ petition, the installation of a statue in front of the Supreme Court is contradictory to articles 12 and 23 of the Constitution. It also hurts the religious sentiment of the people as 95 percent people of the total population are Muslims.

On 21 April, Islami Andolan Bangladesh demanded that the remove of statue before Ramadan.

Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina apparently backed the Islamists by expressing her dislike for the statue.

Sheikh Hasina broke her silence last month after inviting top Islamist leaders to her residence where she described the statue as ‘ridiculous’.

‘I don’t like it myself. It’s being called a Greek statue, but how did a Greek statue get here?’ she said.