Around 400 BNP-Jamaat-leaning teachers at Rajshahi University have announced of abstaining from taking classes or performing exam duties.
The decision was made at a meeting yesterday afternoon, confirmed Prof Shamsul Alam Sarker, convener of the pro-BNP white panel of teachers. “We have come to the decision for the sake of security of the students and teachers.”
Shamsul added: “We ourselves will resume classes and exams of our students after the present political crisis of the country is resolved.”
On Monday, in a meeting between Vice-Chancellor Prof Muhammad Mizanuddin and the department heads and faculty chiefs, the RU authorities decided to hold classes and examinations amid hartal and blockade.
Although the university had ended its winter vacation on January 11, the ongoing blockade and spates of hartals in the region meant no classes could take place at the RU since the start of the year. However, following the decision at Monday’s meeting, classes started again on Tuesday.
However, since classes resumed, student attendance has been slim, especially following several crude bomb blasts inside the dormitories and on the campus over the past few days.
On Tuesday night, three crude bombs exploded on the campus including one inside the Shaheed Habibur Rahman Hall. On Monday night, three crude bombs were also exploded including one at Sher-e-Bangla Hall and one at Syed Amir Ali hall.
In this situation, students and teachers were concerned about their own security, said white panel Convener Shamsul, adding that classes and exams should only be resumed after normalcy returns.
Because of the ongoing political unrest, final exams for different academic sessions at 20 departments remain pending, with exam schedules being changed several times.
