Protest at Cuet: Students suspend demonstration

Demonstrating students of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (Cuet) late last night suspended their protest upon assurances from the university authorities that their major demands would be met.

"... The authorities have assured us that they will take initiatives to widen the Chattogram-Kaptai road and a fund will be created to provide compensations to the families of the two students who died in the crash on Monday," Rafsan Bin Ali, a representative of the demonstrating students, told The Daily Star.

The development came hours after the Cuet authorities closed the institution for an indefinite period in the wake of demonstrations by students to press home their 10-point demand, including justice for the two deceased and Tk 2 crore compensation for each of victims' families.

Students withdrew the road block on the Chattogram-Kaptai road around 11:00pm. They also left the VC office which they had been laying siege to.

Sheikh Mohammad Humayun, registrar of the university, said they convinced the students to end their demonstrations.

The university syndicate will sit today to discuss keeping the dormitories open, he added.

After a meeting of its academic council around 4:00pm, the university yesterday afternoon issued a circular asking the male students to vacate the dormitories by 5:00pm yesterday and the females by 10:00am today.

Angered by the announcement, demonstrators locked the vice chancellor's office and the main entrance to the university. They also set fire to two buses of Shah Amanat Paribahan -- one on the Chattogram-Kaptai road near the campus while the other on the campus.

Although students unlocked the VC's office after about an hour, the VC and his office staffers could not get out until the students left late at night.

The students continued demonstrations for the fourth consecutive day yesterday, Prof Rezaul Karim, director of the Directorate of Students' Welfare at Cuet, told The Daily Star.

"Later, the VC announced the closure of Cuet at an emergency academic council meeting. After the announcement, students set two buses on fire," Rezaul said.

According to witnesses, students blocked the Chattogram-Kaptai road in front of the main gate of Cuet in Raozan by placing logs, halting movement of traffic since Wednesday morning. They had only allowed emergency vehicles, including ambulances, to pass.

Yesterday afternoon, students held a press conference at the Cuet Shaheed Minar. Ashiqul Islam Tamim, a fourth year student of mechanical engineering, said, "We reject the university's decision of shutting the institution. We won't leave the campus until all our demands are met."

The two Cuet students were killed in a road accident around 3:30pm on Monday when their motorbike collided head-on with a bus of Shah Amanat Paribahan on the Chattogram-Kaptai road in Rangunia's Saptapir shrine area.

The deceased -- Shanto Saha and Taufiq Hossain -- were students of civil engineering.

Police seized the bus that day and arrested the driver on Wednesday.

Protesting the deaths, students had torched another bus of Shah Amanat Paribahan on Monday.