CUET VC confined, students against leaving halls

Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) students have locked the main gate of the administrative building after the authorities shut the university sine die amid demonstrations of students in the wake of death of two students in a road accident four days ago.

The administrative building has offices of vice chancellor, pro vice chancellor and registrar. It has been learnt that three were inside the building while students locked the gate.

The students put the building under lock and keys at around 4:30pm and took position inside the entrance.

Pro-VC Md Jamal Uddin Ahmed told Prothom Alo, “Administrative building has been locked. We’re inside. The students will have to vacate the halls. As the campus has been shut, there is no way to hold any discussion with students.”

The students in a press briefing at 4:45pm said they won’t vacate residential halls as per the order of the CUET authorities. The authorities asked the male students to vacate residential halls within 5:00pm today and female students within 9 in the morning tomorrow.

The students said they would continue the demonstration and urged the university administration to hold dialogue with the students again.

The decision to shut the university was taken at the academic council’s 151st emergency meeting today. The announcement was made public in a notice signed by CUET registrar Sheikh Mohammad Humayun Kabir.

Humayun Kabir told Prothom Alo, “The campus will remain shut for an indefinite period. We repeatedly tried to hold dialogue with the students but they did not respond well. That’s why we decided to shut the university. We are yet to decide what will be done if they (students) don’t leave the halls.”

Meanwhile, the decision to shut the campus further enraged the demonstrating students as they torched two buses of Shah Amanat Paribahan at Swadhinata Chattar and the main gate of the campus. Some students also misbehaved with a teacher at that time. A tense situation is prevailing on the campus.

Earlier, Shanto Saha, third-year-student of civil engineering department at CUET and Towfiq Hossain, second-year-student from the same department, were killed after a Shah Amanat Paribahan bus ran over their motorcycle in the Zianagar area of Rangunia on Monday.

The students have been demonstrating since then. The demonstrating students blocked the road for around 13 hours on Wednesday.