The incident could have been averted

Thursday's incident at Shahbagh that led to Siddiqur Rahman's eye injuries could have been averted had the authorities told the agitating college students that their demands had already been met two days before.

Government Titumir College student Siddiqur Rahman was in unbearable pain as both his eyes were badly damaged in police action during a student demonstration demanding announcement of exam schedules.

Police lobbed teargas shells and used truncheons on the students of seven colleges affiliated with Dhaka University. Several students were injured and the police excess drew flak from different quarters.

DU Vice-Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique had a meeting with the college principals at the university last Tuesday. The meeting had decided to announce the schedules of Honour's and Master's exams.

But the students who had been agitating over the last few months demanding the announcement of the schedule were in the dark. They were not notified about the development.

Instead of telling the demonstrating students, their college principals waited for a circular from the DU.

Some principals claimed that they had verbally told the heads of different departments about the meeting decision.

On Sunday, the DU registrar's office sent the circular to the colleges. The authorities hung the circular on notice boards of all departments.

Seeking anonymity, a teacher of Government Titumir College said, “The decision should have been immediately communicated to the students, given the fact that they are already in a movement. But that didn't happen. If the students were informed about the decision, such an incident would not have happened.

“The Dhaka University cannot shrug off its responsibility as the demonstrators are its students after the affiliation. It could have sent a representative to Shahbagh that day [on July 20] to defuse the tension,” he added.

Around two lakh students are studying in seven colleges -- Dhaka College, Eden Mohila College, Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College, Kabi Nazrul Government College, Begum Badrunnesa Government Mohila College, Mirpur Government Bangla College and Government Titumir College -- that were brought under the umbrella of Dhaka University in February.

Earlier, the colleges were under the National University.

Prof Moazzem Hossain Molla, principal of Dhaka College, said he had notified the heads of different departments about last Tuesday's decision on that very day and asked them to inform the students of the matter.

“As far as I know the heads of the departments informed the students present on the campus of the matter. But I think many students were unaware,” he said.

IK Selim Ullah Khandaker, principal of Kabi Nazrul Government College, echoed the same.

Many students said their fellows in other colleges under National University already sat for their final year exams and some even received test results.

DU sources said one of the main reasons behind the delayed decision was the long-standing disagreements between the DU VC and National University VC Prof Harun-or-Rashid, also a former pro-VC of DU.

Prof Harun had stepped down from the post of pro-VC in June 2012 after disagreements with the VC on several issues, including the appointment of his son as a DU teacher and defeat of the pro-Awami League Blue Panel in the DU syndicate elections, the sources said.

He cited his need for more concentration on education and research in his resignation letter.

He became the NU VC in 2013.

The conflicts between the two teachers became evident in some of their comments.

Prof Arefin recently at a programme alleged that the NU published some exam results without properly checking the answer scripts of students. The NU in response asked the DU VC to come up with specific information about the allegation.

The NU on Sunday in a newspaper ad refuted the DU's allegation that it did not cooperate with DU by giving information about the students of the seven colleges.

Despite repeated attempts, this correspondent couldn't reach Prof Arefin and Prof Harun over the phone for comment.

Rashed Mahmud, spokesperson of the students' movement, said they had no idea about the DU's decision on the exam schedules.

“We heard from two or three students that a Dhaka College teacher made a statement about the exam schedules. But how could we be sure about the information since there was no announcement from the college authorities?”

Rashed, a Master's final year student from Titumir College, said earlier this month they heard that one of the departments in the college announced the exam schedules, but the information was proved to be incorrect.

He demanded the authorities ensure proper treatment of Siddiqur, carry out a fair investigation into the police excess on the student demonstration and bring those responsible to book.