cut off outlets for southern complaints. In 1963, Southern leaders had renewed the armed struggle against the Sudanese government that had continued sporadically since 1955. The rebellion was spearheaded from 1963 by guerrilla forces known as the Anyanya (the name of a poisonous concoction). Return to civilian rule (1964–69) October 1964 Revolution Recognizing its inability to quell growing southern discontent, the Abboud government asked the civilian sector to submit proposals for a solution to the southern problem. However, criticism of government policy quickly went beyond the southern issue and included Abboud's handling of other problems, such as the economy and education. Government attempts to silence these protests, which were centered in the University of Khartoum, brought a reaction not only from teachers and students but also from Khartoum's civil servants and trade unionists. The specific incident that triggered what later became known as the October Revolution was the storming of a University of Khartoum seminar on "the Problem of the Southern Sudan" by riot police on the evening of 20 October 1964. The police killed three people in their attack; two students, Ahmed al-Gurashi Taha from Garrasa in the White Nile and Babiker Abdel Hafiz from Wad-Duroo in Omdurman, and a University of Khartoum manual labourer, Mabior, from the southern part of Sudan. Protests started the following day, 21 October, spreading across Sudan. Artists including Mohammed Wardi and Mohammed al-Amin encouraged the protestors. According to Mahmoud A. Suleiman, deputy chairman of the Justice and Equality Movement in 2012, "the main reason for the October Revolution was the Sudanese people's dislike of being ruled by military totalitarian regimes." The civil disobedience movement triggered by the 20 October seminar raid included a general strike that spread rapidly throughout Sudan. Strike leaders identified themselves as the National Front for Professionals. Along with some former politicians, they formed the leftist United National Front (UNF), which made contact with dissident army officers. After several days of protests that resulted in many deaths, Abboud dissolved the government and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. UNF leaders and army commanders who planned the transition from military to civilian rule selected a nonpolitical senior civil servant, Sirr Al-Khatim Al-Khalifa, as prime minister to head a transitional government. Post-October 1964 The new civilian government, which operated under the 1956 Transitional Constitution, tried to end political factionalism by establishing a coalition government. There was continued popular hostility to the