On the eve of a 13-day holiday for the Eid-ul-Fitr, the university’s protesting students vowed to continue their movement until their demands are met.
On the same day, Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, expressed solidarity with the demands of the BUET students and also demanded student council elections at all the universities across the country.
The protesting students, however, rejected the JCD’s solidarity, calling it ‘politically motivated’.
On Wednesday, all the students except one boycotted an examination for the 18th batch of the university.
The students held a press conference on the university campus in the evening in which they revealed the results of an online opinion survey conducted among 5,834 BUET students on student politics.
The results showed that 5,683 or 97.41 per cent of the students are against student politics on the campus.
The students said that these results had proved the validity of their position.
BUET general students have been demanding permanent expulsion of student Imtiaz Hossen who is a central committee member of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League, and some other students for resuming BCL activities on the university campus on March 29 through a showdown defying a previous ban on politics.
The High Court on April 1 allowed the activities of all political organisations on the BUET campus, responding to a writ petition filed by Imtiaz.
The university authorities banned political activities on the campus following general students’ protests in the wake of the murder of its student Abrar Fahad by some BCL leaders at the university’s Sher-e-Bangla Hall on October 7, 2019.
The BCL on Tuesday announced a four-point programme to bring back regular political activities on the university’s campus.
Meanwhile, at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporter’s Unity in the capital, JCD central president Rakibul Islam Rakib claimed that the BUET students stood against the politics of the BCL since the Abrar Fahad murder.
‘We believe that the concern of the BUET’s general students for the safety of their lives and academic environment at the presence of the BCL is very rational,’ he said.
‘We demand student council election and coexistence of all political organisations at all the universities,’ he said, adding that they stand in solidarity with the BUET students against ill politics.
JCD general secretary Nasir Uddin Nasir said that if the BUET students welcome them they will start their activities on the campus.
In response to this, the general students of BUET in the evening press conference said in a written statement, ‘We strongly condemn this politically motivated move by the Chhatra Dal. We believe that they are trying to hijack our movement for their own political gain.’
‘We want to make it clear again that our position is not against any single student organisation. We are against student politics entering the campus, so our stand is equal and firm against any organisation that wants to do it,’ the statement read.
Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, a section of pro-BCL BUET students at a press conference held on the university campus demanded progressive student politics, including BCL and JCD, on the BUET campus.
Before the press conference, these students submitted a complaint letter to the vice-chancellor professor Satya Prasad Majumder expressing concern about the safety of their life alleging that they were facing threats, bullying and harassment through the telegram app by several banned outfits, including Hizbut Tahrir, Bansher Kella and Khilafat, since revelation of their stance in favour of the progressive student politics.
The Socialist Students’ Front in a statement issued on Wednesday demanded student council elections at all the universities and establishment of healthy politics on the campuses.
Jatiya Party chairman Ghulam Muhammed Quader in a press release issued on the same day said that the BUET students should decide whether they would allow politics on their campus or not.
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