National team stars Tawhid and Shoriful urge an end to bloodshed

Dhaka, 16 Jul   — Tawhid Hridoy and Shoriful Islam, two stars of the Bangladesh national cricket team, took to social media to urge an end to the bloodshed surrounding the ongoing student protests.

The protests, demanding reform of the quota system in civil service jobs, saw one death on Tuesday in Rangpur.

The situation turned violent on Monday when protesters were allegedly attacked by members of the ruling party's student wing, the Bangladesh Chhatra League.

Tawhid, a right-handed batter, was the first national cricketer to address the protests. He wrote on his social media page: "I've been away from everything, so I haven't seen much. My beloved Dhaka University, may it not bleed anymore," accompanied by a broken heart emoji.

Shoriful, a left-arm pacer, also expressed his feelings about the violence, which has left at least a few hundred wounded in the last two days.

"Assalamu Alaikum. I am a cricketer, but I am also a student. I don't want to see the blood of any more students shed," he wrote on his social media page, accompanied by two broken heart emojis.

Tawhid and Shoriful are the first cricketers to speak out about the ongoing violence. Before them, Ayman Sadiq, the CEO of Bangladesh's largest edutech company, 10 Minute School, also expressed similar sentiments. However, within a day of his statement, the tech CEO lost a $5 million investment proposal from a government-sponsored investment firm.