Bangladesh
SUST Protest SUST students pause protests for a day
Own Correspondent, Dhaka, February 12: The agitating students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) have announced to suspend their ongoing protests against the Vice Chancellor for a day.
The announcement was made by Yasir Sarkar, a representative of the agitating students, at a press conference on Friday (February 11) night after the Education Minister left the campus.
He said, "We hope that His Excellency the Chancellor (President Md. Abdul Hamid) will know our grievances through the Minister of Education and take immediate steps to remove the Vice-Chancellor. After the meeting with the Minister, we will have a meeting with all the students on Saturday (February 12) afternoon to decide what to do. I will inform our next decision after the meeting. Until then, our movement will be suspended."
The agitating student further said, "We have made eight demands to the Education Minister. Our main demand is the resignation of the Vice-Chancellor, the minister has taken everything positively. She also promised to fulfill these quickly. Since the removal of the Vice-Chancellor is not within her jurisdiction, she will inform the Chancellor about the matter."
Meanwhile, SUST Vice-Chancellor Prof. Farid Uddin Ahmed left his residence on Friday after 26 days of continuous discussions with the Education Minister. After discussing with other teachers in the office of the Vice-Chancellor, the Education Minister advised the Vice-Chancellor to express his condolences to all, including the students.
After the meeting in the evening, the treasurer of the university, Prof. Dr. Anwarul Islam told reporters that the Education Minister had asked the vice-chancellor to express his condolences to all, including the students, for all the recent incidents at the university. There is also talk of launching fast education activities online or offline to bring back the normal state of education as soon as possible.
The students had blocked the campus on January 16 demanding the removal of one hall's provost. That evening, the police lathicharged the students, freed the vice-chancellor and took him to his residence. Since then, Vice Chancellor Farid Uddin has not come out of his house.
