CU teachers stage protest

Teachers of Chittagong University will observe a one-hour work abstention for four days from tomorrow demanding punishment of the culprits involved in Wednesday's attack on their colleagues.    
  The executive committee of the Chittagong University Teachers' Association (CUTA) made the decision in a meeting yesterday morning, said Prof Benu Kumar Dey, president of the teachers' body.
The work abstention will start from 11:30am, he said, adding they want the university authorities to expel whoever involved in the attack.
The CU teachers will hold a rally on the campus on September 17 if the attackers are not identified and expelled from the campus within Tuesday, said Kumar.
The teachers yesterday organised a rally on the campus protesting the attack which they termed “an attempt to murder”.  
At least 15 CU teachers were injured when activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir attacked two university buses with guns and crude bombs at Chharahpul of Hathazari upazila on Wednesday.
The CUTA president said the situation would have been worse had the bombs exploded inside the buses which were carrying 60 teachers.
There were a few students present on the campus yesterday, reports our correspondent.
CU proctor Siraj-ud-Daula, however, said regular classes and examinations took place in many departments of the university.
The proctor also said the university yesterday formed a three-member probe committee led by Prof Khan Tauhid Osman to investigate the incident.
Meanwhile, 91 people including Shibir CU unit's president Mostafizur Rahman and general secretary Rajibul Islam Bappy were sued in two cases filed in connection with the attack on the university buses.
Police and the CU authorities filed the cases with Hathazari Police Station on Wednesday night, naming 25 Shibir leaders, activists and supporters as accused. The 66 others accused are unnamed.
Manjur Ahmed, a sub-inspector of the police station, filed the first case against 75 people including the 25 Shibir men, SI Najmul Hossain told The Daily Star yesterday.
Apart from Mostafizur Rahman and Rajibul Islam Bappy, the chief Imam of the central mosque on the campus Abu Bakr Siddique Ullah is the main accused in the case, he added.
Contacted, Mohammad Shahidullah, additional superintendent of police, Chittagong (north zone), said the absconding Imam had long been assisting several Shibir activists in making bombs by giving them shelter in his cottage built on the CU property illegally.
“Police detained 15 people and recovered six locally made machetes, five crude bombs, several leaflets, banners and posters of Shibir during a raid in the cottage after the attack on Wednesday,” the police official said.
After the attack on the teachers, police detained 23 people including 5 Shibir activists and later carried out the raid at the Imam's cottage near the university's Suhrawardi Hall.
In the other case, Rabiul Islam, director of the CU transport department, accused 16 unnamed people for vandalising the two university buses and hurling the crude bombs at those.