Sigh of relief on DU campus

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The five-month long tension between the military backed caretaker government and the Dhaka University (DU) community that had started last August following the beating up of some students by army men on the campus came to an apparent end yesterday with the release of all DU detainees.

The release of the students, on the heels of the release of their teachers the day before, brought the entire DU community together in a celebration on the campus following five months of a tumultuous movement for their peers freedom.

The eight DU students who were released yesterday in three phases are, Bangladesh Chhatra Union’s DU Unit President Manabendra Dev, Liton Mahmud of the Institution of Education and Research, Deen Islam of the accounting department, Deen Islam Angel of mass communications and journalism, Moniruzzaman Sardar of history, Rafiqul Islam Sujon of Islamic history, Asaduzzaman Asad of mathematics, and Zahidur Rahman Biplob of the anthropology department.

Hundreds of students and teachers extended heartfelt reception to their just freed peers on the campus, tears were rolling down the cheeks of many welcomers.

Five of the students were freed on bail in a case of an army vehicle torching, while four other cases against the teachers and students in connection with the August violence had either been withdrawn or verdicts in them had been given. All freed teachers and students were in detention for five months.

As the freed students were arriving on the campus as they were being released in phases, teachers, friends, guardians and others put garlands around their necks and hugged them, some of whom were still bearing marks of torture, that they claimed had been inflicted on them by law enforcing agencies during their detentions. All the freed students, especially the ones who are now free only on bail, were showing visceral fear of law enforcing agencies when journalists were asking them about their experiences in detention.

Rafiqul Islam Sujon, who was sweating even in the winter morning, was struggling hard to stand upright. On Monday, he was taken to a hospital for treatment. He was having problem breathing yesterday amid the festivities, and was stumbling as he tried to walk. Blood was oozing out of his mouth as he was trying to speak.

Sujon said it felt good to be free. “But I can’t talk much, its very painful for me to talk,” he said in a faint voice with much effort.

Another freed student Liton Mahmud said Shahbagh police tortured him, after he had been taken to the police station. He had been arrested by Bhoirab police on September 8 and was handed over to Shahbagh police. “Police tortured me and broke my the pinky on my left hand. They did not even arrange for my broken finger’s treatment. As I managed to get medical attention myself they even took away the medical documents.”

Freed Biplob said, “The army is not our nemesis, we don’t hate them.”

Manabendra Dev thanked the entire DU community for the five-month long struggle to free them.

In the morning, a solidarity rally called by DU Teachers’ Association (Duta) kicked off at Aparajeyo Bangla, turning the campus into a carnival, which lingered throughout the day and into the evening.

Along with four freed teachers, their colleagues, hundreds of students, families of the freed, civil society members, journalists, and leaders of different professional organisations joined the rally.

Speakers at the rally stressed the need for lifting the state of emergency and the need for an announcement setting a definite date for the stalled 9th parliamentary election, as soon as possible.

The rally decided to continue wearing black ribbons and to keep a black flag hoisted atop Arts Building till withdrawal of the army car torching case, release of all detainees of other educational institutions across the country, and withdrawal of all cases in connection with last August’s violence on campuses countrywide. A seven-day ultimatum was given to the government from the rally for meeting the demands.

Meanwhile, a trial court of Sylhet acquitted a student of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology of the charges brought against him in a case of violating the state of emergency on the campus during the same period.

Most of the freed students were looking still undaunted while a few of them were visibly sick.

“I will go back home tomorrow with my youngest son, whom I got back after so many days of anxious wait,” said Moniruzzaman Sardar’s mother Tahmina Begum from Chandpur district, with an ear to ear grin.

Families of the freed teachers and students were watching their dear ones with love and affection in their eyes.

Joyous students were seen treating their peers with sweet at Modhu’s canteen, where the control room of the five-month long movement has been, the history which of being such centres of movements spans over many decades. Students were dousing each other with liquid colours in a sheer show of almost hysterical joy at the freedom of their peers and teachers.

SOLIDARITY RALLY
At the beginning of the solidarity rally at the foot of Aparajeyo Bangla, a sculpture symbolising the people’s unvanquished spirit of liberation war, the freed teachers were received by their colleagues, students and admirers in a ceremony.

Prof Anwar Hossain, one of the freed teachers also the general secretary of Duta, said during his detention he always believed that students of the university hand in hand with the rest of the people of the country would rise up again to free them. He thanked all students and teachers who had joined the protests last August against an injustice and struggled through the last few months to get them free.

“Dhaka University has been the conscience of the country and none can suppress that with might. Whenever the university community saw an injustice or a move against democracy anywhere in the country they protested, and the practice will go on.”

He asked who is ruling the country now. “A ghost government and a small section of our glorious army are trying give the army a bad name. With all of you as witnesses, I would like to say we want to help the caretaker government in holding the election. We don’t want it to fail. So lift the state of emergency, as it is no more necessary and declare a date for the election as soon as possible.”

“The army is not a foe of the students, teachers and the people. This army was forged in the fire of the glorious liberation war in 1971, but a small section of it is now trying to pit the entire army against teachers, students and the people,” he quipped.

The people want democracy; they will not tolerate any other regime in the country, he said.

To the students he said they set an extraordinary example of how peaceful yet powerful demonstrations could also realise a just goal.

“You must stand against any kind of injustice and protest it, but don’t be violent, protest peacefully as you have done. Become politically conscious, but don’t be kowtow to any political party. We will teach politicians how to stay clean.”

Prof Harun-or-Rashid, another freed teacher also the dean of social sciences faculty, asked what offence did the teachers and students committed. They only stood against an injustice, he added.

“Why were we detained for more than three months without any trial? And why were we convicted and then freed? We did not beg for mercy to anyone.”

“They freed us only after convicting us thinking that they could tarnish the glorious image of the university. But if necessary we will go to jail again still we will not allow anyone to tarnish the image of this institution.”

He went on, “We, the students and teachers of the university, are successors of glorious movements. Nobody will be allowed to repress us with muscle.”

Prof Anwar Hossain and Prof Harun-or-Rashid thanked Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, former president of Duta, and Prof MM Akash for their bold roles in the movement to free the teachers and students.

Addressing the rally, Prof Siddique demanded overturning of the convictions of the teachers and students. “Why should the students bear the stigma of conviction if they are not guilty?” he asked.

“We repeatedly said the students and teaches of the university did not commit any crime. They just protested an injustice, for they should not be punished,” he said adding nobody will be able to live in peace messing with the DU community.

Idris Ali Sheikh, Abdul Halim Sheikh, Foizuddin Mollah, Shaheen Akter and other guardians of the freed students also spoke at the rally.

Dolly Dev, mother of Manbendra Dev, said her son was born to protest injustice. “He did not commit any crime, but they arrested him from home and tortured him,” she said.

Prof Sadrul Amin and Prof Neem Chandra Bhowmik, two other freed teachers, also spoke.

Prof Shafiquzzaman presided over the rally while National Professor Kabir Chowdhury, painter Hashem Khan, poet Syed Shamsul Haq, Prof Muhammad Akhtaruzzaman, Prof Muntasir Mamun, Prof MM Akash, Prof Muhammad Samad, Prof Shahadat Ali, Dr Kamrul Hasan Khan, journalist Iqbal Sobhan Chowhdury, sculptor Hamiduzzman, Prof Saiful Islam Khan, Dr Mesbah Kamal, theatre director also President of Sammilito Sankskritik Jote Nasiruddin Yusuf Bachchu, and many others were present.

The rally put out a call to everyone to observe August 20 as the Day of Repression on Teachers and Students, from now on to keep the memory of the struggle alive.

Some DU teachers belonging to pro-BNP and pro-Jamaat White Panel were also seen hanging around the rally, although the panel’s teachers had been against any kind of demonstration to free the detainees.

As the rally rolled on to its halfway mark five freed students — Manabendra Dev, Deen Islam, Deen Islam Angel, Rafiqul Islam Sujon and Zahidur Rahman Biplob — joined it arriving from Dhaka Central Jail around 12:15noon.

Later in the afternoon around 4:45pm, two more students — Moniruzzaman Sardar and Liton Mahmud arrived on the campus after being freed. And lastly Asaduzzaman Asad got back to the campus after five months from Dhaka Central Jail in the evening.

On their way to the campus, all freed students stopped at Central Shaheed Minar to pay their homage to the language movement martyrs many of whom were students of DU.

Talking to reporters, the freed students urged the government to withdraw the army vehicle torching case, as five of them are free on bail in connection with that case.

On August 20, a violent student protest broke out on DU campus following some army personnel beat three DU students during a soccer match on the university playground. The protest later spread to other educational institutions in the city and elsewhere across the country, continuing for a few days resulting in an imposition of a curfew and shutting down of all educational institutions in all major cities.

Following the imposition of the curfew, the military backed administration launched a crackdown on teachers and students, detaining some of them and filing cases against the spotlighted teachers and students of DU and RU.

Police initially implicated 84,000 unnamed persons in 59 cases filed with different police stations in Dhaka, Rajshahi and other parts of the country.

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