An ongoing road safety movement by Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (Cuet) students has been postponed following a bilateral meeting between the university administration and students on Thursday night.
Vehicular movement on busy Chattogram-Rangamati’s Kaptai Road resumed at around 11:30pm after the protesting students left it.
Moreover, the students decided to return to their academic activities deferring their movement.
A statement signed by Cuet registrar (additional duty) Prof Dr Sheikh Mohammad Humayun Kabir on Thursday night says a decision will be made in the syndicate’s meeting to be held on Friday to reconsider the closure of academic activities.
However, students will be allowed to stay in the dormitories till then, it read.
Earlier on Thursday afternoon, Cuet was declared closed for an indefinite period as students burst into protests demanding road safety after the deaths of two fellows in a fatal road accident on April 22.
Besides, male students were asked to vacate dormitories by 5pm on Thursday and female students by 9am on Friday.
Shanto Saha, a third-year student, and Tawfiq Hasan, a second-year student of the civil engineering department, died when a bus of Shah Amanat Paribahan hit a motorbike on the Chittagong-Kaptai road in Zianagar under Rangunia upazila on Monday.
As soon as the news spread, some Cuet students vandalized three buses and set one more on fire on that day.
Students took to the streets boycotting classes and examinations and continued their protests till Wednesday blocking the Chittagong-Kaptai road by setting fire to logs and tyres to press home their 9-point demand for safer roads.
They demanded the arrest of the bus driver and his assistant and their exemplary punishment.
The other demands included providing compensation to the deceased and bearing the medical expenses of the student injured in the accident, establishing a modern treatment centre with all facilities on the campus, providing ambulances with modern equipment, stopping the movement of all local buses including Shah Amanat and AB Travels on the road, examining licences of the buses and CNG-run autorickshaws that ply the road, making the Student Welfare Council accountable and forming a student representative group.
Bus driver Md Tazul Islam was arrested in the Kotwali area of Chittagong city on Wednesday afternoon.
