SAU students block Agargaon road to protest Secretariat relocation

Students of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU) have blocked Begum Rokeya Sarani in front of the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Agargaon, Dhaka.

Several hundred students from the university staged the road blockade around 11:45 am today, Thursday. They are holding the protest programme against the initiative to relocate the Bangladesh Secretariat to the former International Trade Fair ground in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.

Earlier, students had begun gathering inside the university campus from 10:00 am.

Students participating in the blockade were heard chanting various slogans, including: “We will not accept the Secretariat relocation”, “Compromise or struggle? Struggle, struggle!”, and “Take back, take back!”

Rafiur Rahman Rohan, an 82nd-batch Agriculture Faculty student participating in the blockade, told Prothom Alo that they do not want the Secretariat to be relocated there. They anticipate that transferring the Secretariat to this site will severely degrade the balance of the area.

Another student, named Abir, stated, “We don’t even have adequate land for our academic research. This ground originally belonged to our university. Therefore, ownership of the land must be restored to SAU.”

The Acting Proctor of the university, Professor Mohammad Tajul Islam, told Prothom Alo that the students are protesting for their own demands. However, they have promised not to engage in any form of violence or vandalism.

When students were assembling on campus, Professor Saiful Islam of the Soil Science Department expressed solidarity with them.

“We will continue our movement systematically through constitutional means. We will keep trying to reason with those who fail to understand how profoundly the environment of this area will be harmed if the Secretariat is established here,” he told the students.

SAU students have been protesting for several days against the initiative to relocate the Secretariat to the old trade fair ground.

As part of their ongoing agitation, they dismantled ongoing construction structures for two commercial expos on the grounds Wednesday morning. University authorities later intervened and persuaded the students to return to campus.