Several leftist students’ organizations and teachers of Dhaka University staged a rally Friday in solidarity with the movement being waged by the students of Shahjalal University of Science & Technology in Sylhet.
The protesters demanded the removal of SUST Vice-Chancellor Professor Farid Uddin, trials of attacks on students and the withdrawal of cases filed against students.
Vice president of Gonotantrik Chhatra Council, Saidul Houqe Nishan, said, "Students just demanded their rights but SUST authority returned their demand by charging them and firing at them."
"Our government has the power to close all the educational institutions but it cannot remove a single VC who forced his students to be hospitalised by attacking them," he added.
Thanking all the participants, a former student of SUST said, "Police cannot enter an autonomous University without getting the permission of the Vice Chancellor and proctor. Then, how SUST students were attacked by police? The involvement of SUST authority is clear like daylights yet they are denying their involvement in the attack."
"Many students are falling sick as they go on hunger strike till the VC resigns and many students have already been hospitalized," he informed.
"This scenario is faced not in SUST only; every public university is in the same situation. University administrations become the spokesperson for the government," he regretted.
Pahari Chhatra Parishad central president Sunayan Chakma said, "A person who does not have self-respect, cannot be a teacher as well as a vice chancellor.
Referring to SUST VC, he asked, "If he had self-respect, he would have resigned from his post. How can he be a VC, who is unwanted by students?"