Universities and the government have failed the students
The violence occurring in various campuses in and outside of Dhaka over the last few days is making us anxious and worried about the safety of our students and that of regular citizens. If the universities had fulfilled their responsibility of ensuring safety of their own students, the situation would not have become so concerning. The government's liability is also not to be ignored. We can guess that it is due to the government's direction that the UGC shut down the university campuses.
The campus shutdown was enacted the day after the student body of the ruling party was removed from the residential halls. At the very least, the university authorities had the responsibility of ensuring passage of students following the shutdown of campuses. Not only did they fail to ensure this, but they also enabled the BGB, police, and different ruling party bodies such as Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and Jubo League to violently attack the students. This has resulted in at least 10 deaths—and we are afraid the count will only go up. The responsibility for this bloodshed cannot be avoided by either the government or the university authorities.
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On Wednesday, some of us from the University Teachers Network Against Repression tried to rescue the persecuted students. We attempted to organise a rally. There, we witnessed a large deployment of BGB and RAB members on Dhaka University (DU) campus. Instead of ensuring a safe passage for the students to leave Dhaka University, Rokeya University, Jahangirnagar University, Shahjalal Science and Technology University and so on, the students were attacked and forced out of their own campuses. The university authorities and teachers had no consideration of how these students would suddenly return home at the middle of the night or what their mode of transport would be.
Today, we have seen students from schools, colleges, and universities come under atrocious attacks by the police and BCL in many places in Dhaka, including Badda, Dhanmondi, and Mirpur. Brac University attempted to protect its students on its campus, but when injured students tried to seek medical help, they were stopped by law enforcement agencies.
The government needs to move away from this aggressive approach. They need to understand that fulfilling the students' demands was not unsolvable. The students made logical demands that did not deserve this violent retribution. The universities must be reopened so the students can safely return. Those responsible for the killings and attacks need to be tracked down and brought to justice. None of these deaths can go unanswered. University authorities who have failed their students should resign. These are our demands as conscientious teachers.
Dr Samina Luthfa is associate professor at the Department of Sociology in Dhaka University.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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