BCL men swoop on CU students

Student front of ruling Awami League continues to show little tolerance on any student protest, as they swooped on Chittagong University students today and foiled their demonstration yet again.

The students of CU's Sociology Department arranged the human chain today protesting the declaration of persona non grata of two CU teachers – Maidul Islam, assistant professor of sociology, and Khandakar Ali Ar Raji, assistant professor of journalism.

BCL men foils the human chain in Chittagong University and later beat the students who were protesting through a student-teacher human chain against the actions taken against two teachers of the university by BCL men after the teachers expressed their support to quota reform movement through Facebook. Photo: Star/ Abdullah Abbas

Our campus correspondent reports, Chhatra League men snatched the banner of the human chain as soon as the protest demonstration started and eventually beat the students.

Students and teachers take part in a human chain protesting the actions taken against two teachers of the university by BCL men after the two teachers expressed their support to quota reform movement through Facebook. Photo: Star/ Abdullah Abbas

The Chhatra League activists were shouting that speakers at the rally were speaking against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Chhatra League men were seen beating a student near Dean's Building mercilessly.

Earlier on July 17, Chhatra League submitted a memorandum to the CU vice-chancellor against the two teachers after both of them published status on Facebook in favour of the quota reform.

Chhatra League declared them persona non grata and tagged them as ‘agents of Jamaat-Shibir’.

"Those two teachers were making negative remarks regarding out Prime Minister. They were trying to provoke the students and teachers. It is our duty to stop anyone who supports those two teachers and we have done exactly that today," said Rokibul Hasan Dinar, deputy secretary of science and ICT of dissolved BCL CU unit committee.

In another development, when a Progressive Students group was going to have their lunch at 1:30pm, BCL men attacked them near the library. The group took shelter inside the library in front of which BCL men kept loitering for a while.

Later, the group was rescued with the help of the proctor and police.

Professor Nasir Uddin of Anthropology department of the university said to our correspondent, "One of our colleagues has been threatened out of the campus. Therefore, we have come here to protest. We have lost our right to free speech."