Twenty-four students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) have begun hunger strike demanding the resignation of Vice-Chancellor Farid Uddin Ahmed. News reports showed they had spent the cold night under the open sky. When two students fell ill due to starving, they were taken to hospital. Hundreds of students have been protesting in solidarity with the SUST students on hunger strike. The students demanded that their agitation and hunger strike would continue till the vice-chancellor resigns.
The Shahjalal University of Science and Technology is the proof that a minor problem can become a serious one due to the indiscretion of the administration. Since 13 January, the students of Begum Sirajunnesa Hall have been holding peaceful rallies demanding the resignation of the hall provost. They also held discussions with the VC of the university. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Chhatra League’s SUST unit leaders and activists attacked the students' rally. As a result, the students became agitated and called for boycott of classes and exams.
The next afternoon, when the students confined the VC in the ICT building of the university, the university administration called the police and they beat the students with baton and fired from shotgun and sound grenades at them. Many students were injured.
Authorities closed the university indefinitely and ordered the students to leave the hall around 8:30pm that day. The students ignored that instruction and started a movement demanding the resignation of the vice chancellor. Students have staged protests in different districts including Dhaka, Rajshahi, Jahangirnagar, Khulna and Barisal universities in protest of the attack on SUST students.
The vice-chancellor claimed he did not order police action last Sunday. He said, they have taken immediate action in the wake of the incident. Who called the police on campus? If the university administration has called them, they will have to take the responsibility.
Use of sound grenade on the university campus has never happened before. The responsibility of the VC as the supreme guardian of the university is to provide security to the students. But the vice-chancellor of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology did not perform his duty and called the police instead. Not only this, the university administration has stopped meals in the dormitory and forced them to eat in the hotels and restaurants around the campus. How could the university administration be so inhumane towards the students?
Some teachers of the university have organised human chain in protest of the alleged insulting remarks of the students to the teachers. But nothing could be more indecent and insolent than the remarks made by the vice-chancellor two years ago that went viral on social media. They should have protested against the vice-chancellor's remarks before protesting the insulting remarks of the students.
The vice-chancellor, who pushed the students on a hunger strike until death, forcing them to stay on the streets on cold nights, has lost his eligibility for office. He said he would accept the government’s decision regarding this. This mentality of holding office till the government sends him a letter is reprehensible. When the students of the university do not want him as the vice-chancellor, he should immediately resign and bring back a fair and normal environment of education there.