Ensure safety of quota protesters’

লিখেছেন লিখেছেন নুর হুসাইন ২২ এপ্রিল, ২০১৮, ০৩:১১:৩৩ দুপুর

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Guardians of Dhaka University students, teachers and others hold a protest rally for safety of quota reform protesters on DU campus. Photo: Syful IslamGeneral students of Dhaka University who took part in the recent quota protest are facing harassment and intimidation by DU authorities and leaders of ruling party student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL).

The authorities’ move to drive out female students from Sufia Kamal Hall on Thursday night is an example of such harassment, speakers on Saturday observed in a protest rally held at Shahbag.

A platform of concerned guardians and citizens (Shikkharthider Nirapottae Udbigno Ovivabok o Nagorikbrindo) organised the rally demanding safety of students in DU residential halls including Sufia Kamal Hall and ensuring a democratic environment on the DU campus.

A large number of guardians, students and professionals joined the rally, despite inclement weather and voiced their concern on the suppression and intimidation of students who took part in recent quota reform movement, by the ruling party student wing and DU authorities

Speakers also condemned hall provost Sabita Rizwana’s threat to drive out two thousand residential students if necessary, terming this as shameful and unprecedented.

DU history department’s Ahmed Kamal said the incident of intimidating students by the hall authorities for taking part the quota movement is shameful and unprecedented in DU’s history.

Terming the residential halls of DU as ‘the epicentre of autocracy’, he urged the DU authorities to stop intimidating students for taking part in quota movement.

Lawyer Jyotirmoy Borua said, the way Sufia Kamal Hall’s provost was checking student’s mobile phones, threatening to file cases against them and spying on them, was a criminal offence.

“She does not have any right to do what she has done so far,” he added.

Teacher of DU’s accounting department Mushahida Sultana urged all teachers and professionals to be vocal against all kinds of repression of students.

Jatiya Mukti Council secretary Faizul Hakim Lala, lawyer Hasnat Qaiyum, journalist Faruk Wasif, singer Arup Rahi, writer and publisher Robin Ahsan, former student leader Lucky Akhter, Umme Habiba, and DU student Shamanta Sharmin, spoke at the rally among others.

The authorities, in an unprecedented move, evicted at least four students of Sufia Kamal Hall on Thursday night and ‘handed over’ them to their local guardians, accusing them of spreading rumors in the social media.

As the decision drew flak and created resentment among students, the hall authorities then reinstated them on Friday.

Several students seeking anonymity told Prothom Alo that they were still being threatened with ‘facing consequences’ by BCL leaders.

বিষয়: বিবিধ

৫২৩ বার পঠিত, ০ টি মন্তব্য