Turmoil after Abrar’s Death: Buet academic activities yet to resume

Academic activities at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology are yet to resume even three weeks after Abrar Fahad’s murder.

Term finals of all the departments, scheduled to start on October 20, have been postponed amid the ongoing boycott of the students.

“At a meeting of the university’s academic council on October 12, we decided to cancel the test schedule taking the students’ demands into account,” Prof Abul Bashar, a member of the academic council told The Daily Star.

Earlier, students demanding justice for Abrar declared that they would not attend classes or exams until the authorities expel all the accused involved in the murder.

On the flip side, the authorities, in a notice issued on October 11, said they would expel the perpetrators after receiving the probe report.

Talking to this newspaper, an administrative official of the university yesterday said the university would expel the accused who would be found guilty in the investigation being conducted by the law enforcers.

Many students are fearing that they might be subjected to a two-month session jam due to the ongoing situation.

“If we continue to boycott classes and examinations, no one other than us will be the sufferer,” a batch-15 students of Mechanical Engineering department told The Daily Star yesterday, seeking anonymity.

“We will be missing some recruitment tests because of the delay,” he said.

Contacted, Antora Tithi, a spokesperson of the protesting students, said despite their academic loss, they would not seat for examinations until the killers get expelled.

Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police earlier told this newspaper that charge sheet in the case would be submitted by the first week of November.

He also said they had found involvement of all the arrestees.

Abrar, a second year students of Electrical and Electronic Engineering department, was beaten to death by a group of Chattra League men at the university’s Sher-e-Bangla Hall between the night of October 6 and early hours of October 7.

Abrar’s father filed a murder case against 19 students of the university, mostly BCL leaders, and several other unnamed accused with Chawkbazar Police Station on October 7.

Police arrested 20 people in connection with the murder and eight accused gave their confessional statements narrating horrific descriptions of torturing Abrar to death.