Activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League yesterday assaulted a group of Shahjalal University teachers who were protesting the vice-chancellor’s corruption and irregularities.
After the attack, Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, noted educationist, a secular figure and a popular science-fiction writer who had played a key role in founding the university 30 years ago, sat in the rain in front of the VC office for several hours in protest.
His wife Prof Yasmeen Haque, another founding figure of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), was among the teachers who the Chhatra League members assaulted.
Hundreds of people came down hard on the ruling party’s student body as soon as the news and photographs of the attack and Prof Zafar Iqbal’s protest came up in social and online media.
Witnesses said most of the senior leaders of the pro-Awami League students group and several senior teachers, known for having good relations with the VC, were standing nearby when the attack was launched but they did not stop the attackers.
The teachers’ group – who call themselves the Forum of Teachers Inspired by the Spirits of Liberation War – has alleged that VC Prof Md Aminul Haque Bhuyan used the members of the ruling Awami League’s student front against the protesters.
The teachers – some of whom were among the founders of the university – accuse the VC of violating rules in recruiting his brother-in-law, making university staff do his personal tasks, misusing public funds, embezzling university’s money to go on foreign trips and discriminating against some of his colleagues.
The forum – comprising mostly secular and leftist teachers – began protests on April 13, demanding the VC’s resignation. A week later, 35 teachers, including Prof Zafar Iqbal, resigned simultaneously from the administrative posts they had been working in addition to their teaching duties.
There are several factions within the university unit of Chhatra League who locked in armed fights on the campus in the past, but over the last few months, the political student group has remained united in the question of what they said was “protecting” the VC.
The protesters alleged that the feuding factions of the Chhatra League got united behind the VC following an order from the government.
Yesterday, the protesting teachers had a scheduled sit-in programme in front of the administrative building. The VC also called separate meetings of the Board of Advanced Studies at 9am and the Academic Council at 3pm.
Leaders and activists of the university unit Chhatra League took position near the Administrative Building around 5:30am. The protesting teachers came to the area around 7am to observe their scheduled sit-in.
Things started heating up around 8:30am when VC Prof Aminul came in front of the building to attend the first meeting. As the agitating teachers blocked the VC from entering the office, the Chhatra League members pounced on the protesters.
They took away the banner that the protesters were carrying, beat them up and pushed them away. Prof Yasmeen fell on the ground and got hurt during the scuffle. Several other teachers also got hurt in the attack.
Taking advantage of the chaos, the VC slipped into the Administrative Building and went straight to his office.
Witnesses said that SUST unit Chhatra League President Sanjiban Chakraborty Partha and General Secretary Imran Khan were present when the teachers were being assaulted.
Akhter Hossain, officer-in-charge of Jalalabad police station, tried to bring things under control but the Chhatra League men did not listen to him. When contacted later, the OC refused to make comments. Around 3pm, the teachers’ forum called off the day’s programme and announced a half-day work abstention for today. They also said that seven of the protesting teachers have been injured in total.
Terming the attack shameful, Prof Yasmeen Haque told the Dhaka Tribune: “The VC is using Chhatra League to cling to his position … The students of the university have attacked their teachers before. I strongly condemn this act by the Chhatra League.”
University Proctor Kamruzzaman Chowdhury said: “The protesting teachers tried to prevent the VC from entering his office. A scuffle broke out at this point between the students and the teachers. But, I have no information on anyone getting hurt.”
VC Prof Aminul said protesting teachers including Faruq Uddin and Yasmeen Haque blocked him when he tried to enter the Administrative Building.
“No teacher has so far raised any allegations of getting attacked. If I get any such objections, I will definitely take action,” the VC later told reporters.
He also said that the students were staging a movement to keep the environment of education at the university undisturbed.
Chhatra League President Sanjiban said: “It [stopping the teachers] was not an organisational decision. Those who took part in it did it on their own accords.”
After a period of relative calm in May when the VC was on leave, the Forum of Teachers Inspired by the Spirit of Liberation War resumed protests in June.
On June 22, the protesters kept the VC locked and confined in his office for a brief period. On June 25, they published what they called was a white paper of his corruptions.
The VC, who is said to have strong ties with the Awami League government, snuffed out the allegations. “I have come here upon the government’s orders and would only go after completing my four-year tenure,” he said after publication of the white paper.
Prof Aminul was appointed VC of the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in July 2013. Before that, he was a teacher of food and nutrition science at Dhaka University.
On June 23, SUST unit Chhatra League Joint Secretary Sajidul Islam Sabuj said the VC was appointed by the government and therefore it was the government’s duty to keep him safe.
On July 23 and 24, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid held a series of meetings with the VC, the protesters and the association of teachers of the university.
Later, VC Prof Aminul was instructed not to make any decision on recruitment until further notice and the protesters suspended their movement upon being assured by the minister.