B'desh interim leader Yunus urges people to emulate activist Abu Sayed

Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus on Saturday urged the people of the violence-hit country to emulate the way student activist Abu Sayed stood valiantly during the anti-government demonstrations that led to the toppling of Sheikh Hasina's government.

Sayed, 25, of Rangpur's Begum Rokeya University, was among the first protesters to be killed in police firing on July 16 during the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.

Bangladesh recently witnessed violent clashes between the police and mostly student protesters demanding an end to a controversial quota system that reserved 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's War of Independence in 1971.

The 84-year-old Nobel laureate, who was sworn in on Thursday as the head of an interim government, met with Sayed's family members in Rangpur's Pirganj upazila, The Daily Star newspaper reported.

We have to stand the way Abu Sayed stood Abu Sayeed's mother is everyone's mother. We have to prote