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Download PDF The Dhaka University teachers and students yesterday staged a sit-in, boycotted classes and formed a human chain demanding release of their detained colleagues and classmates.
Wearing black badges and holding posters, some 80 teachers took part in the silent sit-in from 11:00am to 12:00noon in front of the Aparajeyo Bangla.
Several hundred students also gathered around the Aparajeyo Bangla and many witnessed the programme from the balconies of the Arts Building.
The demonstrators demanded release of the detainees immediately for the sake of maintaining a congenial academic atmosphere in the university.
National Professor Kabir Chowdhury, former president of DU Teachers’ Association (Duta) Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, former general secretary Prof Muhammad Akhtaruzzaman, Prof Sakhawat Ali Khan, Prof Muhammad Samad, Prof MM Akash, Prof Shaikh Abdus Salam, Prof Shahadat Ali, Prof Giasuddin Mollah, Prof Dalem Chandra Bhowmik, Prof M Akhtaruzzaman, Prof Saiful Islam Khan, Prof Rahela Banu, Prof Nazma Shaheen, Mesbah Kamal, Rahmat Ullah, M Wahiduzzaman, Mofizur Rahman and Nadir Junayed were present among others.
Talking to the reporters, Prof Kabir Chowdhury said, “There is no logic in keeping the teachers and students detained.”
Prof Kabir also observed that taking classes is not the sole duty of the teachers, to protest against any injustice is also the duty of a teacher. “If the teachers protested during the August incident, they performed it as their duty, for which they deserve reward, not punishment,” he added.
The veteran professor observed that the university authorities should be active in their efforts to free the detained teachers and students.
He said that the reports by the judicial inquiry commission and the army should be made public so that people can learn what happened during August 20-22, 2007 on and around the campus.
Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique demanded immediate release of the detained teachers and students so that a congenial academic atmosphere can prevail on the campus.
Asked about several teachers’ allegations that they are hatching conspiracies through holding such demonstrations to make the campus unstable, Prof Siddique said that it is rather those people themselves who are plotting against the Duta and making it dysfunctional in connivance with the administration so that the release of the detainees is delayed.
“Every organisation has its right to ask for their just demand, so has the Duta. If its leaders are not capable enough to lead the teachers to free the detainees, they will stand down,” he added.
Prof MM Akash urged the teachers to continue wearing black badges until the detained teachers and students are free.
Meanwhile, around 100 students formed a human chain at the Institute of Social Welfare and Research on the same demand in the morning. Many of the participants put on black badges during the half-an-hour long programme.
The ‘Students against repression’ yesterday observed one-hour class boycott programme from 11:00am to 12:00noon. They took position at a gate of the arts building during the hour.
They will form a human chain on the campus at 10:00am today.
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