As part of a series of coordinated moves since Monday to quell the unrest at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Sylhet, a case has been filed against five former students for allegedly sending money to the students’ movement demanding their VC's removal.
The case was filed at AMP's Jalalabad police station on Tuesday night, confirmed OC Nazmul Huda Khan.
They were arrested from different areas of Dhaka on Monday and Tuesday.
The arrestees are Reza Nur Moin, 31, son of Moin Uddin of Bogura district, Habibur Rahman, 26, son of Matier Rahman Khan, Nazmul Sakib, 32, son of Mizanur Rahman of Khulna district, AKM Maruf Hossain, 28, son of Mosharraf of Mirpur in Dhaka and Foysal Ahmed, 27, son of Sadiqul Islam.
READ: Long march from Dhaka to Sylhet Wednesday in support of SUST students
All the arrestees were taken to Sylhet’s Jalalabad Police Station for interrogation, said police.
A team of CID took them there around 6 pm and handed them over to police, said Nisharul Arif, Commissioner of Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP).
It was clearly part of a series of moves taken by the administration to force the students into ending the protest by starving it of sustenance -for all the amount of passion and courage the protesters have shown, any movement to survive needs financing, among other things.
With the move against the 5 former students, the authorities have not just moved to cut off their funding. It was in addition to making 6 mobile financial services and banking accounts the students were using to collect the funds inaccessible anyway, and so the arrests are likely meant to serve as examples for others not to step forward in support of the movement.
Also on Monday it became known that the Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College, which was voluntarily providing much-needed medical services to the students on hunger strike from January 19, had informed them that they would no longer be doing so. The revelations had come at the end of a day when surprisingly, there was no contact between the students and the government - specifically the department of Education Minister Dipu Moni, who till Sunday had expressed an overt willingness to engage with the students.
But now it seems the government would prefer to follow a scorched earth policy with the students till they are forced to yield. Whether they will is another matter.
The students embarked on a fast-unto-death on the university campus on January 19, demanding the resignation of SUST Vice-Chancellor Farid Uddin Ahmed over a police crackdown on its students.
The students vowed to continue with their hunger strike till the VC quits.
The hunger strike was launched on January 19 by 24 students and later one of them had to leave due to family obligations. On January 22, three more students joined their fellows in the hunger strike
The strike was launched after police swooped on the protesting students, charging batons and firing sound grenades and shotgun bullets.
READ: 5 ex-SUST students held in Dhaka as impasse continues
The alleged attack was carried out to free the VC from confinement in the university’s IICT building, and it had left 40 people hurt, including teachers, students and cops.
Zafrin Ahmed, a provost of Begum Sirajunnesa Chowdhury Hall, a dorm for females, was at the centre of the initial unrest as she allegedly misbehaved with some students on January 13 when they met her with some complaints.
She later resigned from her post, citing health issues.
Provost Zafrin Ahmed’s removal was one of the initial demands of the students protesting on the campus. But it has now spread to the general students as well.