JU crisis deepens
The ongoing crisis in Jahangirnagar University, following the killing of a student allegedly by Chhatra League activists, deepens with the administration taking a rigid stance against the removal of its proctor body, a major demand of agitating students and teachers.
“I am not considering at this moment their demand for sacking the proctor,” JU Vice-Chancellor Prof Shariff Enamul Kabir told The Daily Star yesterday.
From today, a group of pro-BNP, pro-Awami League and left leaning teachers under the banner of “Shikkhak Samaj” start boycotting classes while teachers loyal to the vice-chancellor vow to run academic activities.
“We will not attend classes or take part in other professional activities until our demands are fulfilled,” Sharif Uddin, general secretary of Jahangirnagar University Teachers' Association (Juta), told The Daily Star yesterday.
The Shikkhak Samaj on Thursday took the class-boycott decision after an alleged assault on Juta President AA Mamun by Proctor Prof Arzu Miah soon after the postponement of a meeting of the association.
The meeting had called for scrutiny of the administration's role during and after the attack on Zubair Ahmed, a final-year English department student and also a Chhatra League activist.
According to a confessional statement of an accused in a case relating to the murder, a gang of rowdy youths on Sunday beat Zubair.
The victim suffered severe wounds and thirteen hours later he died at a city hospital, sparking off storms of protest from students and teachers. They immediately demanded removal of the proctor, his associates and the security officer for failing to ensure campus security and exemplary punishment to the killers.
The JU administration, however, discharged its security officer Azim Uddin from his duties yesterday.
The top administrator of the university termed the agitations nothing but a bid for political gains. “They have placed the demands to gain politically, not for the welfare of teachers and students,” Prof Shariff Enamul Kabir said.
“A gang of criminals killed Zubair for creating anarchy on the campus, thus fulfilling the target of a section of teachers who are against the institution's interests.”
Pro-Awami League teachers, loyal to the administration, will bring out a procession on the campus today to mourn Zubair's death.
“We will hold classes and perform other duties like other days today,” said Prof Badiar Rahman, one of the teachers to back the VC.
Also today, the agitating teachers will hold a teacher-student rally to press home their eight-point demand. They will stage demonstrations on the registrar office premises and submit their demands to the vice-chancellor in writing.
Students continued their demonstration yesterday, holding rally and singing protest songs. They will stage protest march on the campus this morning.
FORMER STUDENTS PROTEST
A large number of former students of JU held a human chain, a procession and a rally in the capital's Shahbagh area yesterday afternoon.
At the programmes, they demanded a judicial inquiry into Zubair murder, removal of JU proctor and setting up a well-equipped hospital at the university.
CPB General Secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim, among many others, joined the demonstration and spoke in support of the JU student movement.
A group of students of Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (Kuet), another education institution plagued with violence, attending the events expressed solidarity with the Jahangirnagar protesters.
The speakers at the rally urged the government to take stern action against the people responsible for the recent unrest at different public universities and steps to maintain congenial atmosphere on the campuses.
THE CONFESSION
Mahabub Akram, a student of JU government and politics department, yesterday made a confessional statement before a magistrate.
The accused was arrested from a dormitory of the university on Thursday night.
Mahbub confessed that he, three final-year students named in the first information report (FIR), and several others had beaten inured Zubair, said Shaheen Parvez, investigation officer of the case.
After recording the statement, a Dhaka Court sent him to jail.
The three FIR named accused are Khandaker Ashikul Islam and Khan Moahmmad Rais, both from zoology department, and Rashedul Islam from philosophy. Ashikul has already been arrested.
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