DUTA extends support to Prof ABM Faroque
Dhaka University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) yesterday condemned the offensive speech of different groups -- including a government official -- against professor and researcher of the university ABM Faroque.
“Such threats and misbehaviour with Prof ABM Faroque were unexpected and discourteous,” DUTA said in a press statement.
DUTA issued the statement over ten days after some companies concerned and a secretary to a ministry had threatened Prof ABM Faroque over his tests that found detergent and antibiotics in packaged milk.
Terming his research an ethical responsibility for public concern, DUTA said such type of verbal attacks will discourage researchers and restrict their freedom.
“If the result of any research is to be termed wrong, it must be proved through another research; but the ministry concerned threatened the professor without taking any initiative like that,” the statement said.
DU teachers said conducting such research is a part of a researcher’s responsibility and fundamental right. “The idea that no research can be published at a seminar or discussion before being published in peer-reviewed journal -- is not correct.”
DUTA also thanked all other persons and organisations who in the meantime extended their support to the professor.
On June 25, Prof ABM Faroque, director of the Biomedical Research Centre, detected detergent and three types of antibiotics in packaged milk.
On the same day, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute -- the country’s lone quality control authority for food -- submitted a report to the High Court, claiming it did not find anything harmful in the milk samples it examined. Dhaka university’s pharmacy department subsequently denied any involvement with Prof Faroque’s study.
On July 9, the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock threatened to take legal action against the DU researchers, if they fail to publish their study in an international peer-reviewed journal.
Later, Prof Faroque was served a legal notice that claimed he was working for a vested quarter and trying to destroy the country’s dairy industry.
On July 13, their second round of test again detected four antibiotics used for humans in packaged milk.
JUTA DEMANDS LEGAL ACTION AGAINST GOVT OFFICIAL
Meanwhile, Jahangirnagar University Teachers Association (JUTA), in another press statement yesterday, demanded that DU authority take legal steps against the fisheries and livestock ministry official for his indecent remark on Prof ABM Faroque.
Expressing deep condemnation and indignation over the incident, the association said the way Kazi Wasi Uddin -- an additional secretary of the ministry -- verbally attacked Prof Faroque has crossed limits.
Such an attack is “a threat” to the practice of knowledge at university, the statement said, adding that through dishonouring the respectable professor, Wasi “insulted” the entire teacher community, it added.
The statement was signed by the association’s President Prof Ajit Kumar Majumder and Secretary Prof Md Sohel Rana.
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