University teachers meet home boss

Leaders of the Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association (FBUTA) yesterday met with Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal demanding a fair probe into the murder of Rajshahi University's Prof AFM Rezaul Karim Siddiquee and exemplary punishment for the killers.

They also demanded completion of the trials of all previous murders of teachers and free thinkers and security for people.

A six-member FBUTA team led by its President Farid Uddin Ahmed also submitted a memorandum to the minister at his secretariat office, calling upon government officials to make remarks to media carefully.

"We requested them to avoid the remarks which encourage militancy and terrorism and undermine public confidence," said the memorandum.

Cautioning the minister against US interference, the statement said, "The USA wants to interfere in domestic affairs of the country in the name of helping in the investigation into recent murders."

Meanwhile, students of Rajshahi University yesterday continued their demonstration on the campus for the 13th consecutive day, demanding justice for the murder.

Students of English department held a procession a rally on the campus.

They said their protest would continue until the killers were brought to book and vowed to continue their movement during the summer break, which would start tomorrow.

FBUTA claimed that the law enforcement agencies had failed to solve the recent murders and lacked proper strategies to prevent those. "We believed that brutal killings by militants would be resisted through fair and immediate trials of the killers," the memorandum said.

Maksud Kamal, secretary general of FBUTA, told The Daily Star that during the hour-long meeting, the minister assured the teachers of the trial of the murder and wanted suggestions to prevent such killings.

"When questioned that the government neither expressed solidarity with the RU teachers nor expressed condolence to Rezaul's family, the home minister told us that he would visit Rajshahi on May 14 to discuss with RU teachers and citizens to avert militancy," he added.

Unidentified assailants hacked Prof Rezaul to death on April 23, and this killing took the total number of university teachers murdered in a decade to four.

FBUTA claimed that all the murders occurred in the same way.