The students of Jahangirnagar University held protests at the university on Friday demanding a ban on party politics on the campus.
They made the demand as at least five members of the JU unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, allegedly killed a former leader of the Chhatra League, student wing of the Awami League, on the campus.
The protesters claimed that the JCD activists killed BCL leader Shamim Molla out of political vengeance using Shamim’s alleged involvement in attacks on anti-quota protesters as a pretext for killing.
The protesters brought out a procession from the university’s Central Shaheed Minar at about 2:30pm demanding a ban on politics for teachers, students and employees on the campus.
Parading main roads of the university, they held a rally in front of the residence of the university vice-chancellor, professor Kamrul Ahsan, on the campus to press home their demand.
Addressing the rally, English department student Hafizur Rahman said, ‘Politics has turned into a weapon to suppress opponents. Politicians are holding innocent people hostage to gain their personal profit.’
The protesters gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the university administration for banning politics on the campus.
JU vice-chancellor Mohammad Kamrul Ahsan said that he would discuss the matter with the university’s administrative body soon.
On Wednesday night, Shamim Molla, a former organising secretary of JU unit of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League, was beaten to death by students of the university on the campus.
The authorities of the University on Thursday night filed a case and suspended eight students of the university over beating to death of the former Chhatra League leader.
Among the eight accused, Raju Ahmed of the government and politics department, and Rajon Hasan and Hamidullah Salman of the English department were reportedly involved in the politics of Chhatra Dal.
Apart from the listed accused, general students said that Sayed Hossain Bhuiyan, a former general secretary of the JU unit JCD and MN Shohag of computer science and engineering department were among those suspected to have killed Shamim.
Admitting his presence on the spot of beating Shamim, Sayed Hossain Bhuiyan said, ‘I went to the spot as a former student. Shamim was not in a critical condition after beating him.’
He also demanded an investigation into the death.
The central committee of the JCD in a press release on Thursday night claimed that the accused JU students were not involved with their politics.
‘There is no scope for claiming someone a JCD activist who joined the JCD freshly after the fall of the fascist government. No posted leader was involved in connection with the lynching of the former JU BCL leader’, according to the JCD release.
President of the JCD central committee Rakibul Islam Rakib told New Age that there were no committees at Jahangirnagar University and a vested quarter was trying to make JCD questionable over the incident.source: newage
