DU Correspondent :
Many female students of Dhaka University (DU) called for boycotting the classes and scheduled examinations till the unconditional release of some quota reform activists who have been taken into custody by the police.
Afsana Safa Imu, joint convener of Bangladesh General Students Rights Protection Forum (BGSRPF), came up with the call on Thursday afternoon in front of Begum Rokeya Hall of Dhaka University after ending a campus-wide demonstration in which around five hundreds female students from different residential halls took part.
Girls paraded throughout the campus chanting slogans, carrying banners, festoons and holding placards calling for safety of students and unconditional release of quota reformists from custody.
They came down in the hall campus in large number on Wednesday midnight at first calling for release of the fellow students and withdrawal of cases against them relating to quota agitation.
They carried banner that reads ‘students of Rokeya hall’ demanding a safe DU campus and protection from vandalism. On Wednesday female students of Shaamsunnahar Hall also marched in their hall campus calling for immediate release of the quota reformists.
Imu said, “we were waging a logical movement peacefully but BCL attacked us mercilessly”.
Denouncing bitterly the admin roles, she said, “Cops arrested those who didn’t commit any crime. BCL men committed crime by mauling, manhandling, kicking and pouncing our brothers and sisters and passed blame on them to make the police case.”
“So, we cannot sit in classroom keeping our colleagues inside the jail, she added.”
Along with them, another section of students of Kabi Sufia Kamal Hall under the banner of ‘ student against repression’ condemned the imprisonment and BCL assault on university students.
She said students are fighting for a just cause and waiting for gazette notification on the cancellation of quota system. The Prime Minister has promised it. Students will not go back without obtaining their demands.
DU Sociology Department human-chain:
Students of Sociology Department demonstrated on Thursday morning seeking immediate and unconditional release of Moshiur Rahman, a student of the Department.
Moshiur, also a member of BGSRPF, was allegedly picked up by BCL men after beating him mercilessly on June 30. Later it was discovered that he was in Keraniganj police station.
They claimed that Moshiur has been kept under police custody without any specific accusations.
They also have boycotted the classes and exams of the department until he is released. Around hundreds of students took part in the programme along with department chairman Professor Nepal Karim, Professor Amanullah, Associate Professor Samina Luthfa and Assistant Professor Debashish Kundu.
In a human chain, Tity, classmate of Moshiur said, “We will never go back to our class without him as he is a regular student of the Department and demonstrated for meeting students logical demands”.
Professor Nehal Karim said, “university cannot avoid its liability. As a teacher of university, it is not acceptable to us that a student would be detained by cop without informing us”.
Meanwhile, BCL, a ruling party’s student organization formed a human chain under the banner of ‘general student’ at Raju Sculpture site of the DU demanding end to unrest in the campus.
General student claimed that activists of Bangladesh Chattra League (BCL) also pounced on quota reformists and rough up them mercilessly in almost all university campuses across the country.
This unscheduled programme held on Thursday from morning to afternoon was led by Tanvir Ahmed Saikat, member of the BCL Central Committee.
Saikat said they want to calm down the unrest in the campus. He said the government has already formed a committee to solve quota problem in the civil service.
He also warned the general students not to join the quota movement any more.
“If anyone tries to destroy congenial atmosphere of the varsity through demonstrating, we will prevent him with iron hand,” he said.
