The Dhaka-Chittagong highway was blocked for an hour and human chains were formed, rallies staged, and processions brought out across the country yesterday demanding that perpetrators of the murder of a female student of Comilla Victoria Government College be immediately identified and brought to book.

The body of Sohagi Jahan Tanu, 19, a second year history student and a member of Victoria College Theatre, was recovered from Comilla's Moinamoti area on Sunday night. Her father, Year Hossain, filed a murder case with Kotwali Model Police Station on Monday. Comilla Superintendent of Police Abid Hossain said they were awaiting the autopsy report. Arrests are yet to be made with police suspecting she was killed following an attempted rape. Friends claim she had been raped.

The highway was blocked with tree trunks at Nandanpur area by students of Victoria College and Comilla University and members of Victoria College Theatre demanding arrests within three days, reports a correspondent from Comilla. The trunks were removed after Kotwali Model Police Station Officer-in-charge Abdur Rob assured taking prompt steps. In the evening, hundreds joined a human chain and procession at Chandina Bus Stand, organised by Kanthashadhan Abriti Parshad.

In Dhaka, Sammilito Sangskritik Jote organised a rally at Dhaka University's Teacher-Student Centre, Bangladesh Chhatra Union organised a rally in front of Bangladesh National Museum and a Gonojagoron Mancha faction brought out a procession carrying flaming torches from Shahbagh.  Cultural personality Ramendu Majumder, the jote President Golam Kuddus and former president Nasir Uddin Yousuff spoke at the rally from where the jote announced holding non-stop demonstrations from March 29 unless arrests were made by March 28. In Chittagong University, the anthropology department formed a human chain on the Central Shaheed Minar premises  joined by around 200 students. At Jahangirnagar University, Jahangirnagar Sangskritik Jote, under the banner of "Combined Cultural Alliance", brought out a procession and organised a rally. Nari Sanghati also made the protest and demand through a statement.