We will not attend classes with him
Students at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology boycotted their classes and staged a sit-in at the campus yesterday, protesting the return of a student expelled earlier by the authorities in connection with the Abrar Fahad murder case.
Ashiqul Islam Bitu was expelled along with 25 students, following the murder of Abrar Fahad in 2019, but he was not named in the police charge sheet.
He recently filed a writ petition with the High Court and secured a "stay order" from the court against his expulsion.
Yesterday around 10:00am, the protesting students staged a sit-in in front of the vice chancellor's office, demanding his expulsion from Buet.
They demanded that Buet cancel Ashiqul's registration and reinstate his expulsion order. They also said they will continue boycotting their academic activities until the authorities take such steps.
"Ashiqul is one of the suspects in the Abrar murder case. He has returned to classes. We do not want to attend classes with any accused. We gave an ultimatum to the authorities, but did not get any result. Therefore, we are boycotting all types of academic activities," said a student.
The Daily Star called Buet Vice Chancellor Prof Satya Prasad Majumder and Students Welfare Office Director Prof Mijanur Rahman several times, but they did not answer.
On October 6, 2019, Abrar Fahad was beaten to death by a section of Buet BCL leaders and activists. After the incident, Buet expelled 26 students including Ashiqul, the then assistant secretary of Buet Chhatra League. He was later expelled from BCL.
Abrar was a second-year student of the electrical and electronic engineering department. Ashiqul was a second-year student of the Chemical Engineering department at the Buet.
In 2021, Ashiqul was granted permission by Buet authorities to attend online classes. However, due to protests from fellow students, he refrained from attending classes. Recently, he attempted to participate in a class with students from the 17th batch of the department but was met with strong protests.
On Tuesday, demonstrators formed a human chain in front of the Central Shaheed Minar.
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