NSU not sole element

North South University (NSU) cannot be “the only element of the recent extremism”, Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Atiqul Islam responded to journalists' queries at the institution's Banshundhara campus in the capital yesterday.

Newsmen had gone there to know of NSU's stance over the involvement of its former and current students in two recent deadly terror attacks, in a Gulshan café and near the Sholakia Eidgah in Kishoreganj.

“Here students spend the highest nine to 12 hours a week. The rest of the time, they spend at different places. There are electronic media and internet through which they have high chances of getting inspired to carry out such activities,” he said.

Regarding a former faculty who was held hostage at Holey Artisan Bakery and later released, the VC said Hasnat Karim resigned in August 2012 mentioning that he wanted to increase his involvement with his family business. There was no allegation against him at that time and NSU is not supposed to know what he had done in the next four-five years and with whom he maintained contact, said Prof Atiqul.

On one of the Gulshan attackers, he said Nibras Islam was a BBA student of the 2011-12 academic session and completed three semesters. “Then he went to Malaysia and had no involvement with this university since then,” he said.

Nibras might have either indulged in extremism in Malaysia or the seed of extremism might have been sown in Bangladesh and it expanded in Malaysia, apprehended Prof Atiqul, adding that NSU had no involvement in this regard.

The VC said one name which surfaced in the Sholakia attack was a student of NSU. “We are trying to know how he took the path of extremism. We are also trying to know internally whether there was any motivation from this university,” he said.

Asked whether any student was missing, Prof Atiqul said there were some students who became irregular for family businesses, illnesses or financial crisis.

“The university has just opened (after Eid). Different departments have been asked to give information about it and collective information would soon be available," he said. He, however, said analysing the last six months' information, it was found primarily that the number of irregular students did not increase.

NSU has decided that gaps would not be allowed between semesters without prior permission, the VC said.