JU students asked to leave campus by 4pm

The authorities of Jahangirnagar University declared the university closed indefinitely from Wednesday.

The university authorities have also ordered the students of 19 residential halls to vacate the halls by 4:00 pm today.

This decision was taken in an emergency meeting of the syndicate chaired by Nurul Alam, the vice-chancellor of the university, around 10:00 am Wednesday.

More than 100 students, who have been demonstrating for quota reforming, took a stand in front of the new administrative building during the syndicate meeting.

Later, when the university registrar Abu Hassan came to announce the decision of the syndicate at around 12:00 pm, the students threw shoes and started throwing bricks towards the administration building.

Tension was prevailing in the area at the time of filing of this report around 12:30 pm.

The protesters said that the students were demonstrating for a logical demand. The Bangladesh Chhatra League men and some outsiders attacked the demonstrators with the help of the administration, injuring over a hundred students. Later, the protestors chased away the BCL men from the campus.

They further said the university has been closed mainly to stop this logical movement and bring back the expired students of BCL. They rejected this decision.

Hasib Zaman, one of the demonstrating students, said, “General students rejected this decision of the syndicate. The administration took this decision to cover up their failure and not to prosecute the Chhatra League goons. The movement will continue until our demands are met.”

Nearly 100 police members with armoured vehicles were stationed on the road adjacent to Shaheed Minar of the university during the protest around 1:15 am.

The protesting students also took position on the opposite side of the police on the same road. The students said in microphones that they wanted to stay on the campus peacefully and requested the police to leave the campus.

The police and the protestors were facing each other at the time of writing this report around 1.30 pm.

Speaking about the overall situation, Dhaka District additional superintendent of police (crime and ops and traffic, north division) Md. Abdullahil Kafi said, “We have come to the campus with the permission of the university administration so that the law and order situation is not disturbed here.”