University teachers as well as students of more educational institutions joined the ongoing anti-rape, anti-sexual harassment protest as the country enters the fourth day of protest on Thursday which was sparked by a spate of rape and torture incidents against women across the country.

On the day, the demonstrators came under attack in Moulvibazar district town.

Amid the protests, at least 10 incidents of rape surfaced on Thursday at places across the country.

The protesters staged demonstrations by holding rallies, forming human chains, bringing out processions and chanting slogans to press home their demands, including the resignation of the home minister.

They carried banners and handwritten posters against the rapists, their protectors, the police and the government and demanding highest punishments of the rapists.

The posters read ‘Stop rape’, ‘Rapists are responsible for rape, not women’s dresses’, ‘Prime minister, who are you for: rapists or victims?’, ‘People will now resist murders, rapes, enforced disappearances’, ‘There would be action, where there is a rape’, ‘Prime minister, hear us please’, ‘Helmet gangs are rapists, society a mere viewer’, ‘Hang rapists’, ‘We want justice’, ‘Failed home minister, step down’.

They demanded resignation of the home minister for his failure to ensure safety for women and bringing the offenders to book.

Protesters in many places chanted slogans against the ruling Awami League and its front organisations for backing the rapists and offenders.

Protests flared up across the country after the rape of a newly-wed woman on MC College premises by leaders and activists of AL’s student organisation Bangladesh Chhatra League on September 25.

The protests took momentum after a video of a 37-year-old woman getting sexually assaulted and tortured by a group of youths in Begumganj upazila in Noakhali went viral on social media on October 4.

The video showed the offenders stripping the housewife naked, molesting and beating her and dragging her as she kept begging for mercy holding one to one of the offender’s legs in a village of the upazila.

Meanwhile, detectives arrested one more accused, Mainuddin Shahed, 51, in the cases lodged by the Noakhali victim, said Noakhali additional police superintendent Md Shahjahan Sheikh.

Besides, Police Bureau of Investigation members arrested another accused Shamsuddin Sumon from a location in Habiganj, a district police official said.

With the two, a total of 11 accused were arrested in the cases lodged by the Noakhali victim.

Begumganj police on Thursday produced Shahed and Kalam, arrested on Wednesday, before the Noakhali Judicial magistrate-3 Masfiqul Haque who granted police to take Kalam for 10 days and Shahed for two days in police custody for interrogation, Begumganj police station OC Harunur Rashid said.

With the two, a total of nine accused were placed on remand in the cases.

The district superintendent of police Md Alamgir Hossain said that the police headquarters had directed him to handover the case to Police Bureau of Investigation from the Begumganj police to probe the case.

In the afternoon, two accused in the case, Moazzem Hossain Sohagh, 47, a member of Ekhlashpur union of Begumganj, and Abdur Rahim, 22, of the same area, gave confessional statement before Noakhali Judicial magistrate-3 Masfiqul Haque in the case under the Women and Child Repression Prevention Act lodged by the Noakhali victim, said the court’s general recording officer Md Sohel Rana, without giving any information what member Sohagh said in his statement.

In Dhaka, Dhaka University Teachers’ Association staged a demonstration at the university’s Aparajeo Bangla protesting at the rising incidents of rape, torture and other forms of violence against women while demanding speedy trial of and exemplary punishment for the offenders.

At Shahbagh, different left-leaning student organizations under the banner of ‘Bangladesh against impunity and rape’ began demonstration in front of the National Museum at about 11:00am for the fourth consecutive day.

They chanted slogans, wrote posters and drew pictures against rape and violence against women throughout the day while small processions from different parts of the city kept joining in.

A group of students who joined the demonstration with a small procession at about 2:30pm from the capital’s Demra, alleged that they began their demonstration at Signboard area of Siddhirganj in Narayanganj but BCL activists from adjacent Jatrabari chased them and dispersed them.

They alleged that only a few of them could manage to come to Shahbagh to stage demonstration.

In the evening, Bangladesh Chhatra Union presiden