Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni is scheduled to visit the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (Sust) on Friday, two days after the students of the university resumed their agitation demanding the resignation of their VC.
The minister is scheduled to arrive in Sylhet on Friday morning, said Sylhet Deputy Commissioner Md Mojibur Rahman.
“The minister will attend a view exchange meeting in the city. She is also scheduled to visit the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (Sust) campus,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Sust authorities removed the university proctor Dr Md Alamgir Kabir, whose resignation was one of the demands of the protesting students.
Md Ishrat Ibne Ismail, Associate Professor of the English Department of Sust, has been made the new proctor, according to a notice signed by registrar Isfaqul Hossain on Thursday.
The notice, however, mentioned personal and family issues as the reason for Kabir’s withdrawal.
Earlier on February 6, the authorities appointed Prof Amina Parveen of the Department of Social Work as the new Student Counselling and Guidance Director, removing Prof Zahir Uddin Ahmed from the position due to his “sickness”.
Sust students brought out a procession on the campus on Thursday morning and marked the place with a red handprint where police had attacked them in front of the IICT building on January 16.
They called for activating more than 250 mobile banking accounts of students and withdrawal of the two cases filed by police against the students.
The students resumed their protests on Wednesday, as their demand for the removal of the VC is yet to be met.
The students marched on the campus with placards and photographs of police actions on the protesters on January 16.
Over two dozen Sust students who went on fast unto death ended their week-long hunger strike on January 26. They broke the fast after former Sust Prof Muhammad Zafar Iqbal offered them water to drink.
The students embarked on fast-unto-death on the university campus on January 19, demanding the resignation of the VC over the police crackdown on their fellow students.
The strike was launched after police swooped on the protesting students, charging batons and firing sound grenades and shotgun bullets at them. On the other hand, police filed a case against 300 unnamed protesting students.
The alleged attack was carried out to free the VC from confinement in the university’s IICT building. It left 40 people injured, including teachers, students and police.
Zafrin Ahmed, a provost of Begum Sirajunnesa Chowdhury Hall, was at the centre of the initial unrest as she allegedly misbehaved with some students on January 13 when they met her with some complaints.
She later resigned from her post, citing health issues.
