Anti-VAT protesters have announced that they will continue demonstration today by dividing the capital city into seven zones.
Yesterday evening, hundreds of current and former private university students shared a Bangla post on Facebook which called upon their fellows to stage peaceful programmes in front of their respective campuses starting 9am today.
This comes on the same day the authorities of at least eight private universities in Dhaka have announced postponing all classes and exams for today.
The protesters’ announcement said that Dhaka will be divided into seven zones – Maligabh-Shantinagar, Rampura Bridge, Basundhara Residential Area, Uttara, Banani, Mohakhali and Dhanmondi.
It also specified the names of the participating universities from these areas: AUST and Stamford at Maligbagh-Shantinagar; EWU at Rampur Bridge; NSU, IUB and UITS near the gate of the Basundhara Residential Area; IUBAT, Uttara University and BIFT at Uttara; AIUB and SEU at Banani; Brac University at Mohakhali; and UIU, SUB, Daffodil, ULAB and Asia Pacific at Dhanmondi.
The students of the other universities, not mentioned in this announcement, have been asked to carry out protests in front of their own campuses. However, a little later in the announcement, it is also said that: “This movement will go on in an organised way; there is no need to give individual programmes.”
Meanwhile, according to another Facebook page titled “No Vat On Education,” the students have been observing a three-day student strike at the private universities, medical and engineering colleges starting yesterday.
Zahid Gogon, a student of media studies and journalism at ULAB, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We will bring out a peaceful procession from in front of our campus at 10am tomorrow [Sunday]. From there we will go on to meet the other protesters from the Dhanmondi area.
“This does not have any common banner or platform. Once there was a common platform named No VAT on Education, but it is not active anymore. We are spontaneously staging individual protests.
“Our movement does not have any leaders or coordinators. University students will stage demo in their respective areas. For example, ULAB is located in Dhanmondi, so we are joining the demo in Dhanmondi. East West University is located in Aftabnagar, so its students are joining the protests at Rampura,” Zahid said last night.
Although there is no mention of the word “blockade” in that widely-shared post, another event page – titled “Inter-University Dhaka Siege” – appeared on Facebook around 9pm that said students are going to stage blockade on roads in those seven areas.
This event was created by a Facebook user named Asif Mahtab whose profile says he is a researcher at Don Sumdany Facilitation and Consultancy. When this report was being filed around 10:30pm, a total of 113 guests said they were going to attend the event.
On Thursday, Dhaka suffered from severe traffic congestion and gridlock after students from a number of universities took to the streets in several areas of Dhaka protesting against the imposition of 7.5% VAT on the fees at private universities, med schools and engineering colleges.
A day before that, police fired rubber bullets on a group of protesters on the Rampur Bridge who were mostly students of the East West University located in the vicinity.
After that incident, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) announced that the students would not have to pay the VAT, rather the university authorities would pay the indirect tax.
On Friday, the private university authorities requested the government to reconsider the decision.
In a post on the official Facebook page of ULAB, Vice-Chancellor Prof Imran Rahman said that the universities are united on the stance that VAT on education is “misguided and unfair.” He also said that if universities are forced to pay VAT, the facilities offered to the students might have to be reduced.
On the same day, students called the strike, saying if the universities pay the VAT, the authorities will increase the various fees that they take from the students.
Yesterday, students of several private universities and medical colleges in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet took to the streets. The protests were mainly concentrated in the Dhanmondi and its adjacent areas.
The Mirpur Road experienced some traffic disruption because of the protests but things eventually did not turn out to be as bad as it was Thursday.
Around 12 noon, students from several private universities brought out processions on Dhanmondi Road Number 16 (old 27), Sukrabad and near Lab Aid hospital.
An hour later, World University students formed a human chain near the Lab Aid hospital and then took position the Mirpur Road. Because of this, traffic on the road from the City College to Kalabagan got stuck. But they moved away from the road after an hour upon police’s request.
Daffodil University protesters formed a human chain at Shukrabad around 1pm. Students from the State University also staged a similar programme on Dhanmondi Road 16 (old 27).
However, the students of East West University and North South University did not have any programmes for yesterday.
Meanwhile, citing unavoidable circumstances, the Brac University closed all its classes and exams for today. The Eastern University announced that their Eid-ul-Azha vacations would start from today – some 10-12 days ahead of usual schedule.
The Shanto-Mariam University of Creative Technology in Uttara, Daffodil University in Dhanmondi, South East University in Banani, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology at Tejgaon and the American International University of Bangladesh at Banani also either cancelled or postponed their classes, exams and functions scheduled for today. The authorities of these universities made the announcements in the second half of yesterday.
In Chittagong, students of the BGC Trust University blocked the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar Highway protesting the imposition of VAT.
Police said around 100 students came out of the campus and took to the highway just after Home Minister Assaduzzaman Khan Kamal left the area after attending a programme around 11am.
Chanting anti-VAT slogans, they remained on the road for 20 minutes, halting traffic movement and causing a long tailback on the busy road, said campus sources. They blockaded the same highway on Thursday as well.