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Buet Sit-in Continues

BCL elements swing into action for VC

Staff Correspondent
Buet erupted into protests yesterday as the vice-chancellor and his deputy did not step down within the deadline set by students.
Students burnt effigies of the VC and pro-VC, staged a sit-in at the administrative building and issued a new ultimatum to the duo to resign by 11:00am today. On Saturday, they had imposed a deadline of 10:00am yesterday.
The crisis at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology has increasingly been taking a turn for the worse owing to the rigid stance adopted both by students and top administrative figures of the university.
Also, the presence of the pro-ruling party student wing, Bangladesh Chhatra League, added another dimension to the crisis.
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The BCL men brought out a counter programme on the campus and were locked in a tussle with agitating students yesterday, creating panic throughout the campus.
This correspondent saw some BCL leaders enter the vice-chancellor's residence on the campus around 1:45pm. They held a meeting with the VC, Buet sources said.
Contacted, VC Prof SM Nazrul Islam said he would follow whatever directives the government gave him. He also ruled out any com-munication with the Chhatra League over the issue.
Pro-VC M Habibur Rahman declined to make any comment.
Earlier, the demonstrators torched the effigies of the duo in front of the civil engineering building around 11:15am and brought out a procession on the campus.
A number of teachers in black T-shirts joined the protesters.
At around noon, more than lOOstudentsalongwith a number of teachers entered the VC office on the first floor of the administrative building with police permission and declared their intention to stay there until the VC and Pro-VC were
removed.
"We will remain here until the VC and pro-VC are removed,” said Abdul Hasib Chowdhury, a teacher of the electrical department. "We are here also for the security of the students as some elements from outside may intrude here."
A huge number of law enforcers were deployed on the campus.
Around 12:15pm, some 30-40 BCL members along with some outsiders, wearing white T-shirts with printed texts urging the teachers to keep academic activities above all agitations, commenced a procession from the university cafeteria.
Around 12:45pm, they went to the administrative building, where the agitating students and teachers were staging the sit-in, and tried to enter the first floor but failed. The protesters had locked the gate at the first floor stairs from the inside.
As the BCL members kicked away at the gate and hit it with bricks and bamboo, students shouted for help from the newsmen and law enforcers.
The BCL men then assaulted a few students on the ground floor, snatched away the microphone used by a demonstrating teacher and hurled abuse at him, and drove away the rickshaw
equipped with loudspeaker.
A BCL member was shouting: "You [students] will vandalise VC's room and we'll stay calm? We did not say anything to you in the last several days but now we will not spare you."
The BCL activists left the place around 1:15pm and the students started chanting slogans such as "There is no place for terrorists on Buet premises."
Around 4:45pm, the students at a press briefing before the administrative building announced their intention of staying in the building till 11:00am today.
"How long must we suffer before you [VC and pro-VC] resign?" Faisal Hasan, a student of the mechanical department, said.
It all started on April 7 this year when Buet Teachers Association launched an agitation, including work abstention, and brought 16 allegations against the VC and pro-VC. Students and university officials joined them in mid-July.
CASES FILED
Buet Security Officer Golam Kuddus Khan last night filed two cases with Shahbagh Police Station, accusing around 150 named and unnamed students and teachers of ransacking furniture and looting files from the VC and pro-VC's rooms.
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