The students of Jagannath University (JnU) have blocked the road in front of the secretariat to press home their three-point demands, including handing over the construction work of JnU second campus to the army.
They started marching to the secretariat from the main entrance of their university campus around 4:00 pm today, Monday. Ailing students who are on hunger strike rode on rickshaws while, other students were walking. They reached the secretariat around 4:45 pm and blocked the road.
Earlier, the students started a mass hunger strike to press home their three-point demands on Sunday and announced a ‘complete shutdown’ at the university this morning.
They also locked the main gate of the campus, the administrative building along with the buildings of different faculties.
Apart from that, the students labeled the letter sent from the ministry today, to be ‘vague’ and demanded that to be corrected. At the same time, they had announced to carry out a sit-in programme in front of the secretariat tonight if there are no precise commitments to meet their demands.
The students on the hunger strike stated that the ministry has not promised them anything specific regarding their demands. They demanded to rectify the letter and warned that they would have a sit-in at the secretariat tonight if there’s no letter with specific guidelines fast.
A student, Md Faisal Murad from the department of management studies, who’s on hunger strike said, “We started marching to the secretariat as no new letter reached us within the given ultimatum. We will carry on with our hunger strike on the footpath in front of the secretariat.”
The tree-point demand pressed by the students, includes immediately signing a contract to handover the construction of JnU second campus to the army, to start and complete the construction work of Bani Bhaban in old Dhaka and the still-based building of Dr Habuibur Rahman Hall soon, and to ensure residency allowance for 70 per cent students until the residence facilities are available.
Meanwhile, almost 15 students fell sick from the mass hunger strike that started Sunday. They were admitted to the National Medical Hospital in critical conditions around 10:00 pm Sunday. Apart from them, seven other students are being treated at the medical centre of the university.