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A number of people, including school students, join Zafar Iqbal in his protest.
Popular fiction writer and teacher Professor Muhammad Zafar Iqbal has staged a sit-in against the alleged leak of question papers in the ongoing Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations.
He started his four-hour-long protest at around 8am on Friday at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka.
Iqbal’s wife Yasmin Haque and a number of students and teachers from various institutions joined him.
In several of his recent articles, the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) teacher claimed questions of several HSC tests had been leaked. He had also produced ‘credible evidence’ to support his claims.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid had rejected the allegations.
He said the government reprinted question papers of several HSC tests after an alleged leak of English second paper questions under Dhaka board.
HSC and equivalent examinations had begun across Bangladesh on Apr 3.
After Friday’s protest, one of the protesters, BUET student Naziur Rahman, said they would stage a similar protest from 9am on June 6 at same place.
Zafar Iqbal would join them, too, he said, adding that their Facebook-based organisation would launch a week’s mass campaign in various educational institutions from Saturday to protest the leak.
Iqbal, on May 23, announced his plan for a sit-in protest after the education minister’s statement.
He was seen holding copies of the allegedly leaked question papers.
“How can we allow this to take place in Bangladesh?” he asked. “I’m protesting what is wrong.”
“I will not let our children become corrupt.”
After the sit-in, the well-known writer told reporters, “I would have sat here alone, but I feel really happy after the support I got from young people.”
“I’m always with you,” he told the young protesters.
He said Bangladesh would face a deep crisis if question paper leak was not protested.
“I have demanded actions against this many times, but who listens!”
He wondered if question papers can be leaked at all if there was a strong will to prevent the malpractice.
Some of the protesters also held the administration responsible.
Zafar Iqbal and the protesters were joined by Liberation War Museum Trustee Ziauddin Tarek Ali, BUET teacher Professor Mohammad Kaikobad, writer Anisul Haque and Iqbal’s brother cartoonist Ahsan Habib.
The member of another Facebook-based group of protesters, Farhad Hossain, told reporters that the Dhaka Education Board had not taken any steps even after several complaints were lodged over paper leaks.
He said their group had been staging sit-ins to protest the corruption since Wednesday.
Source: Bd news24