Students of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) on Monday staged a protest march rejecting the university administration’s directive to vacate the dormitories following the announcement of closure.
Students from different halls brought out processions around 9:10am and gathered at the university’s KR Market area.
They chanted various slogans protesting the decision.
Several female students and first-year students were seen leaving their dormitories since morning.
Parents rushed to the campus to take their children home, while students from distant areas voiced frustration over the sudden decision, saying the abrupt closure left them with little time to make travel arrangements.
The protesting students announced a six-point demand at a press conference in the university’s Amtala area around 11:30am.
The six-point demands are:
- Immediate withdrawal of the “illegal” hall evacuation notice.
- Ensuring uninterrupted access to all facilities in the halls.
- Resignation of the proctorial body within 24 hours for its failure to ensure student safety and for allowing outsiders to attack students with teachers’ backing.
- A public apology from the vice-chancellor for incidents of crude bomb explosions, vandalism of the library and other installations, attacks on students with local weapons, and harassment of female students by hired outsiders.
- Exemplary punishment of the teachers involved in the attacks including Prof Asaduzzaman Sarker, Prof Muhammad Tofazzal Hossain, Prof Sharif Ar Raffi, and Prof Kamruzzaman of the Faculty of Agriculture; Prof Bazlur Rahman Mollah of the Faculty of Animal Husbandry; Prof Munir Hossain of Genetics; and Prof Ashiqul Islam of Dairy Science along with the miscreants.
- Immediate introduction of a single combined degree as per the ongoing one-month-long student movement.
The protesting students warned that if the administration fails to meet the demands promptly they will enforce a total lockdown and blackout at BAU.
A BAU student, requesting anonymity, said to UNB: “Authorities are ordering us to vacate the halls, but the halls and university are not anyone’s ancestral property. Without ensuring justice for the attacks on students by outsiders during our peaceful demonstration the administration has again ordered us to leave the halls which we cannot accept. Intimidation will not stop our movement. Our protests will continue until our demands are met.”
The directive followed unrest on Sunday night, when outsiders allegedly attacked students of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine during their protest for a combined degree.
Later in the evening, several students were injured in an alleged attack near the Zainul Abedin Auditorium.
In response, angry students brought out a torch procession and vandalized the vice-chancellor’s residence and the proctor’s office. To control the unrest, the authorities announced the indefinite closure of the university that same night and instructed students to vacate the halls by 9am on Monday.
Students had been carrying out different programs for the past month in demand of a combined degree.
Earlier on Sunday noon, a meeting of the Academic Council was held at the Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin Auditorium. As no declaration was made in favor of the students, the protesters locked the auditorium and confined the VC, along with over 200 teachers.
Later, around 8pm, outsiders launched an attack, broke the lock, and freed the VC and the confined teachers.
Law enforcement personnel have been deployed across the campus, and the situation is currently calm.
