The Rajshahi University has formed a probe committee to investigate Sunday’s violence despite its unenviable record of forming such bodies but letting those accused of murders, clashes and brandishing guns go scot-free.
The committee, formed yet again, will probe Sunday’s attack by the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) on the students protesting fee hike and evening master’s programmes.
Teachers and students said similar violence in the past had been probed, too, but the panels’ recommendations had been ignored.
It betrayed the university’s administrative weakness, they said.
Though the former teachers who held administrative posts cited different reasons for not acting against troublemakers, the present Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan Sajal blamed the state government.
Vice-Chancellor Prof Muhammad Mizan Uddin said steps would be taken against those indicted by the current investigation.
Over 50 students and several journalists were injured on Feb 2, when armed activists of the Chhatra League – the Awami League’s student wing – equipped with firearms and backed by police, attacked the students protesting against fee hikes and evening-shift master’s courses.
Leaders and activists of the Islami Chhatra Shibir and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal were allegedly behind the vandalism at the university the same day after the attack on the demonstrators, according to the university authorities and police sources.
The same night, a five-member committee was formed, headed by Professor Khalikuzzaman of the Zoology Department, to investigate the incident.
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Other members of the committee are Professor Nazrul Islam of the Chemistry Department, Professor Shamsul Alam Sarkar of Applied Mathematics Department, Syndicate Member Ibrahim Hossain and the university registrar M Entazul Huq.
There were a host of earlier incidents in which the university had fought shy of taking action.
On February 13, 2009, Sharifuzzaman Nomani, General Secretary of the Rajshahi University unit of the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), student body of Jamaat-e-Islami, was hacked to death during a clash between BCL and Shibir activists.
Though the syndicate committee recommended action against those involved as per the findings of an investigation, the university administration is yet to act.
On February 8, 2010, Shibir activists carried out a simultaneous bomb attacks in five university dormitories.
That night, Shibir and BCL activists were embroiled in a fierce clash, in which BCL activist and meritorious fourth-year student of mathematics Faruk Hossain was hacked to death and his body was dragged some 500 yards to be dumped in a manhole.
The Shibir activists had cut the limb veins of four other BCL activists in that same incident. Over 50 people, including several policemen, were also injured in the nightlong violence.
The recommendations of a three-member investigation team, headed by Prof Golam Kabir of the Mathematics Department, are yet to be approved by the syndicate committee.
Another probe panel, this one headed by the then Registrar MA Bari, had also been formed after this rather gruesome incident.
The panel recommended steps against 10 students involved in the killing, but no action has yet been taken.
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On August 15, 2010, BCL activists beat up Nasirullah Nasim, a fourth-year student of the History Department and resident of Shah Makhdoom Hall, and pushed him down from the first floor of the dormitory following a dispute over a programme of the National Mourning Day.
He died on August 23 while undergoing treatment at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.
A 10-member committee headed by the dormitory house tutor Dr Ruhul Amin investigated the killing. It named 10 BCL activists for their role in the student’s death, but none of the culprits were punished.
After Nasim’s death, the central Chhatra League dissolved its RU unit but a new committee was formed 10 months later on June 25, 2011.
On July 16, 2012, Abdullah-al-Hasan Sohel, a BCL activist and a fourth-year student of the Sociology Department, was shot in the head when rival groups of the Chhatra League clashed over the collection of funds for the construction of the Padma Bridge.
The student died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital two days later.
The university authorities assigned six teachers, headed by Prof Golam Kabir, to investigate the incident.
The committee submitted its findings to the administration on August 29, 2012, but its recommendations were not acted upon.
General Secretary of RU Teachers’ Association Prof Sultanul Islam blamed an ‘administrative weakness’ for probe recommendations being ignored.
“Had the authorities taken exemplary steps as recommended by the probe panels, such violent incidents would not have continued on the campus for years.”
CPB’s student affiliate Bangladesh Chhatra Union’s RU unit President Ayatollah Khomeini said criminals were being allowed to go unpunished.
RU Chhatra Dal Convener Arafat Reza Ashique said, “The administration was powerless to take steps actions against its boys (Chhatra League men).”
Source: Bd news24
