VC tolerating blasé proctor tantamount to DU protecting molesters
The vice-chancellor's nonchalance towards the increasingly popular demand of students and beyond for Proctor AM Amzad's removal over negligence in protecting females from group molestation during Pahela Baishakh celebrations implies that the Dhaka University (DU) administration is protecting the molesters, said Bangladesh Chhatra Union yesterday.
“We translate your indifference as a sign of indulging the molesters,” President Hasan Tareq told a rally at the Teacher-Student Centre.
The student body declared staging a sit-in at the entrance of VC AAMS Arefin Siddique's house at 11:00am today to protest his inaction.
Some 30 to 40 unidentified persons molested around 20 females for about an hour near the Suhrawardy Udyan gate on the DU campus on April 14. Eleven days into the incident, law enforcers are yet to make arrests.
Meanwhile, protesters under the banner “Dhaka University Chhatri Hall Shamuho” (female student halls) urged the DU administration to fully implement a 2009 High Court directive that stipulated formulation of a policy to prevent oppression of women until a law in this regard was enacted.
“The directive asked the administration to disseminate the policy as bulletins, posters, and other forms and spread it to everyone on the campus,” Assistant Prof Samina Luthfa of DU sociology told a rally at the same spot in the afternoon. Maybe the molestations could have been averted had the administration taken preventive measures, she added.
College students under the banner “Sharbastarer Bikkhubdho Chhatra Shamaj” organised a rally protesting the administration's lack of action.
“We demand an administration and law enforcement agency that is at least willing to save women, rather than the ones that stands by while perpetrators attack,” said Asef Bin Taki of Notre Dame College.
Following the rally, Bangladesh Chhatra Union activists lit candles demanding an end to violence against women and reiterated their demand for Amzad to immediately resign.
They also burnt effigies of the molesters and demanded punishment of policemen who were on duty near the crime scene.
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