Students of Jagannath University (JnU), who have been demonstrating to recover their residence halls, put a lock in the front the entrance to Bangladesh Bank’s Sadarghat branch as their protest entered the 21st day yesterday.
The students also put up some posters on the main gate of the bank demanding the branch be shifted elsewhere in the capital. Earlier on Tuesday, the students put up a banner on the main gate of the bank that read ‘Bangabandhu Academic Building of JnU’.
Wednesday’s protest began at around 10:00am as students of different departments brought out processions that paraded through the campus. They staged a sit-in outside the central bank’s Sadarghat branch disrupting regular activities of the financial institution while a number of students blockaded Chittaranjan Avenue and Bahadur Shah Park area. The blockade suspended vehicular movements there and created a long tailback that resulted in sufferings of commuters and passengers.
At around 01:30pm, traffic movement in Sadarghat and Gulistan routes resumed as the students stopped demonstrating, Harun-Ur-Rashid, deputy commissioner of police of Lalbagh division told the Dhaka Tribune.
Contacted, JnU Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) unit president Shariful Islam, told the Dhaka Tribune that they would continue their demonstration unless there were signs that they would have their dormitories back from the clutches of land grabbers.
Meanwhile, teachers of the university led by JnU Teachers’ Association president Professor Dr Sarkar Ali Akkas and general secretary Professor Dr Parimal Bala formed a human chain outside the Shaheed Rafiq building on the campus at around 11:00am. The teachers also staged a sit-in there as part of their protest.
Later on, the teachers organised a cultural programme to cheer up the protesters. The programme began at around 12:00pm with different types of folk songs and continued till 02:00pm. Many students attending the programme sang songs having lyrics that described previous attempts to grab JnU dormitories.
Professor Dr Parimal Bala, secretary of JnU Teachers’ Association, said teachers of the university would not go back to classes until their demands were met.
“We will not accept any promise. We need to see that words have been put into action,” he added.
JnU students, since the university began its journey on October 20 in 2005, demonstrated on different occasions to recover 13 dorms from illegal occupiers. The latest series of protests began on February 12 this year.
