Excesses at Bhashani: 5 BCL men suspended

The authorities of Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University (MBSTU) yesterday suspended five BCL leaders on the grounds of misbehaving with two teachers.

The decision was made at an urgent meeting of the university regent board, held at the liaison office in Dhaka on Monday night with Vice Chancellor Prof Mohammad Alauddin in the chair, said Proctor Sirajul Islam.

The suspended students are MBSTU BCL President Sajib Talukder; vice presidents Imran Miah and Adrita Panna, and joint secretaries Jabir Iqbal and Yasin Arafat.

The action was taken hours after 56 teachers of the university, on Monday, resigned from their administrative posts following an incident involving two teachers and the BCL leaders.

However, all 56 teachers withdrew their resignation letters yesterday noon, said Pinaki Dey, general secretary of the university teachers' association.

On Sunday, some BCL leaders put pressure on two teachers of the Physics department to let a student take a third-year exam although she had failed 2nd-year semester finals, campus sources said.

When the teachers told them she could not take the exam, the BCL men allegedly hurled abuses and even tried to assault them, they added. 

The authorities formed a committee to probe Sunday's incident.

It was also decided that the university cell for prevention of sexual harassment would investigate another allegation that a teacher of the department made “inappropriate advances” towards the girl.

On the other hand, the suspended BCL leaders held a press conference at Tangail Press Club yesterday demanding removal of the existing university ordinance within three working days, withdrawal of their suspension and the punishment of the teacher for his “inappropriate advances” towards the female student.

PROTEST AGAINST ORDINANCE

Since the ordinance changed in 2013-2014, students have held several demonstrations against it. They also staged protests yesterday, demanding the reinforcement of the previous ordinance.

According to the previous one, results were supposed to be published two weeks after the exam. However, the Physics department had published the 2nd year's second semester results on Saturday, seven months after the exam, whereas the 3rd year's first semester exams started the very next day, said Sajib, one of the suspended BCL men.

The authorities formed another committee to review the ordinance.