170 students of IIUC still missing

170 students from different departments of privately-run International Islamic University of Chittagong (IIUC) have been missing from their academic activities for a period of time. The administration of the allegedly Jamaat-e-Islami funded university made a list of the missing students who have remained absent from the university for two semesters as per direction of Minsitry of Education and handed it over to the Sitakund police station in the beginning of September, said university and police sources. In talks with Dhaka Tribune, IIUC’s registrar Squadron Leader (Rtd) Nurul Islam said “We had made the missing list of the 170 students as per the direction of Ministry of Education and we had included the students who have remained absent from academic activities for the past two semesters without permission.” “The list of the absent students was handed over to the Sitakund Police Station,” the  registrar added. Earlier, the Ministry of Education had directed all the educational institutes across the country to prepare a detailed list of students who were missing from their classes for more than ten days. The decision was taken in the wake of recent militant attacks in Dhaka's upper scale Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1 and Solakia Eidgah in Kishorganj on July 7, as the killed militants, who carried out the attacks, were missing for months. Nurul Huda said “There is an official system that any student of the university can drop two semesters after taking permission from the higher authorities and filling up a designated form.” He also added that the names of the students, who are out of reach, despite repeated attempts, have been included in the absentee list. The university official said: “After handing over the list to the police, some eight to 10 students made contact with the university administration and informed about their problems.” “According to the university law, the admission of the absentees have already been cancelled as they were dropped without any permission”, Nurul Huda continued. When contacted, Sitakunda Officer-in-Charge (OC) Iftekhar Hasan told the Dhaka Tribune: “After getting the list, police have already sent the names and other details to the all concerned stations. Earlier, the name of the university became the talk of the town as one of its students Sabbirul Haque alias Konik was suspected to have been killed in a militant hideout during a raid in Kallyanpur area in the capital on July 26 where nine militants were killed in a deadly gunfight with police. Sabbirul has been missing since February 21 this year. Later, Sabbirul’s father Azizul Hoque Chowdhury alias Rashed, a revenue officer of Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), confirmed to the police that the killed militant was not Sabbirul. A general dairy was filed in this connection with city’s Bakalia police station. The youth is still unreachable while police are investigating the matter.