Protesters of RU fee hike still facing cop harassment

The Rajshahi University probe committee, formed to investigate the attack on general students by pro-Awami League Bangladesh Chhatra League activists backed by police, has not submitted its report even after about five months.
On the contrary, a day after the incident, the university authorities, police and BCL filed six cases with Motihar Police Station accusing more than 750 general students of damaging university properties.
With the cases hanging over them, the students are not being able to move freely on the campus because of the fear of arrest, while their families are being harassed by the law enforcers every now and then, said several victims.
On February 2, around 100 students and eight journalists were injured when some armed BCL men backed by police attacked the students who were demonstrating against a hike in tuition fees and evening master's programmes. Several newspapers published photos of several BCL men brandishing firearms and attacking the demonstrators.
Alamgir Hossain Sujon, an organiser of the movement and one of the injured in the attack, said, “We are passing days in fear of arrest, as police are harassing our parents.” Although the complainants promised to withdraw the cases several times, they did not do so, he said.
Another student, Faruk Emon, who is also a leader of a left-leaning student body, said, “When we try to hold any organisational programme, police try to arrest us in those cases.”
On the day of the violence, the RU authorities formed the five-member probe body, headed by Prof Khalekuzzaman of the zoology department, and closed the university for an indefinite period.
Two days later, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, on a visit to the university, directed the probe committee to submit its report within a month.
Talking to The Daily Star recently, Prof Khalekuzzaman said the committee would try to submit the report before this Eid-ul-Fitr.
About the procrastination, he said that through media advertisements on February 10, the committee had urged the students to meet the probe body, but none responded to the call.
He claimed that the body had also issued notices individually to some victims asking them to testify before the body, but to no avail.
However, Sohrab Hossain, another key organiser of the student movement, denied having received any notice in this regard.
Moreover, the injured journalists, among them Najim Mridha of the New Age and Golam Rabbani of Maasranga TV, said notices had not been issued to them either.
On the withdrawal of the cases against the general students, RU Vice-Chancellor Prof Muhammad Mizanuddin said they were waiting for the probe report.
Replying to a query about the gun-toting BCL men, the head of the probe committee said they saw them in photographs and video footage of different media.
When asked why the probe body was yet to talk to the armed men, he replied that they had been unavailable since the incident.