Manhandled Ruta chief now calls it altercation
One of the Rajshahi University (RU) teachers who had been recently manhandled by Awami League (AL) men at the vice-chancellor's (VC) office yesterday claimed no such incident occurred, drawing flak from colleagues attending campus protests entering the fourth consecutive day.
Meanwhile, RU correspondents at a human chain in front of the central library threatened initiating “tougher programmes” if Rajshahi city unit General Secretary Dablu Sarker did not withdraw the “false, fabricated” defamation case centring a Bangla daily Kaler Kantha report on the AL men's “virulent” behaviour.
Editor Emdadul Haque Milon, Rajshahi staff reporter Rafiqul Islam and RU correspondent Rokon Rakib have been accused in the case, filed with the Rajshahi District Judge's Court on Sunday.
Yesterday's protests demanding punitive measures against the AL men include human chains formed separately by the music and anthropology departments in front of Ismail Hossain Siraji Bhaban.
Meanwhile, Rajshahi lawmaker and Workers Party of Bangladesh General Secretary Fazle Hossain Badsha met the VC and condemned the AL men's behaviour and asked all to safeguard RU's autonomous character.
Besides, some 300 engineering students formed a human chain in front of the Fourth Science Building around 1:00pm demanding exemplary punishment over the sexual assault on some 20 women at theSuhrawardy Udyan gate near Dhaka University's Teacher-Student Centre during Pahela Baishakh celebrations on April 14.
On Thursday, Dablu, accompanied by some 30 others, pushed his way into VC Muhammad Mizanuddin's office, shouted expletives and manhandled at least five teachers, demanding that people of their choosing be appointed in the RU administration.
The day before, Awami League Rajshahi-1 lawmaker Omar Faruque Chowdhury barged into the office, shouted expletives and threatened to get the latter sacked, allegedly after being asked to meet later.
Denying this, Omar said he had gone there and only talked about lessening a fine the RU authorities imposed on a private medical college.
Shah Makhdum Medical College, the managing committee chairman of which is Omar, was fined Tk 25 lakh for starting academic activities without RU's approval.
CHANGE OF STANCE
Addressing a human chain Rajshahi University Teachers Association (Ruta) organised in front of the senate bhaban around 11:00am, President Prof Ananda Kumar Saha termed Thursday's incident a simple altercation and that following news reports were “false” and “fabricated”.
However, apparently in a pleading tone he asked the AL men to refrain from repeating this “incident”.
Without giving others a chance to speak, he then declared an end to the programme attended by some 2,000 teachers and students, prompting his colleagues to start protesting.
Most of the teachers later told The Daily Star that they feared he had been conspiring with the AL men and trying to gain blessings from the ruling party to be appointed VC. Prof Ananda denied this.
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