Movement will continue after the campus reopens, students said
Students vacated Rajshahi University on Monday morning after the campus was closed down sine die following a daylong violence at the institution premises.
The campus was almost empty after 8am. The atmosphere in the university was calm after police and Chhatra League cadres attacked students on Sunday.
A 5-member probe committee, headed by Professor Khalekuzzaman, has been formed and asked to submit a report “as soon as possible” over the incident.
The university’s Public Relations Administrator Eliyas Hossain added that law enforcers were handed over responsibility to maintain law and order at campus.
Official activities of the university will continue during the closure period, he added. “Police will see the matter of filing a case in this regard.”
Pro-Vice Chancellor Chowdhury Sarowar told the Dhaka Tribune the authorities did not visit the injured students until Monday morning.
“Student affairs adviser Sadiqul Arefin Matin will visit the injured students attending treatments at hospital soon and will take necessary steps,” he said.
About 25 students were attending treatments at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
Residential students were angry with the decision to vacate campus premises by early morning, what they said was in very short notice, in cold weather.
“The authorities have done injustice to the students,” Mehzabin Bushra, a resident of Rahmatunnessa hall told the Dhaka Tribune.
However, the movement will continue once the campus reopens, organisers of the general students Ahsan Habib and Alamgir Hossain said.
They have been waging movement for lowering tuition fees and scrapping evening courses, what they said were move for commercialisation of the university.
The authorities postponed the fee-hike in view of strong opposition from the students. However, they refused to accept the closure of evening courses.
On Sunday, police and cadres of Bangladesh Chhatra League attacked during demonstrations. Scores of students were injured and 20 were shot.
In the evening, policy makers sat in an emergency meeting and shut the institution for an indefinite period of time, asking students to break by 8am Monday.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
