BUET protesters set 5 conditions
BUET authorities have met many of the demands made by students protesting against the murder of their peer Abrar Fahad, but failed to reach a consensus with the demonstrators.
The protesters want written and detailed assurances that their previous demands would be met.
The demonstrators have set five conditions to allow admission tests scheduled for Oct 14 after a three-hour long meeting with Vice-Chancellor Prof Saiful Islam on Friday, reports bdnews24.com.
The VC in the meeting announced a ban on politics on the campus and temporary expulsion of 19 students with suspected ties to Abrar murder.
A representative of the protesters at a media briefing later at 10:30pm on the campus said their protests would continue until their 10-point charter of demand is implemented.
“But following the VC’s request and considering the sufferings of those who are preparing for the admission tests, we have taken out some issues that can be realised in a short period of time,” the demonstrator said.
“If the BUET authorities implement these, we will think that the situation on the campus is alright to hold admission tests,” he added.
The five conditions are:
>> Temporary expulsion of everyone with alleged involvement in Abrar murder case. Those who will be formally charged will have to be expelled permanently and the administration must give the assurance in a notice.
>>The notice will contain the assurance that the BUET administration will bear the cost of the legal battle for justice for Abrar and compensate his family financially.
>> Those residing in the halls of residence illegally will have to be removed after banning organisational politics. The offices of the political student organisations will have to be sealed off. A notice will have to be issued on the steps to be taken by the administration if any student gets involved in organisational activities in future or torture others. The notice will mention that these issues will be included in the university’s ordinance. A committee will be formed to oversee these activities and this point on the committee will be mentioned in the notice.
>> A common platform on BUET’s BIIS account be opened so that students can publish previous incidents of torture, harassment and ragging. The platform will remain open for students to report such incident in the future. This move will be announced in a notice.
>> A notice ensuring that security cameras will be set up on both sides of each floor of the residential halls and the videos will be monitored round the clock.
“We don’t want the students of the 19th batch (next batch) to become parts of a sick academic culture,” the student representative said.
The demonstrators announced continuation of their protests, but could not specify their plan for Saturday.
“We’ll let you know later. We may take up programmes like road blockade,” their representative said.
