Tensions mount at JU, demo continues defying authorities’ order

The students of Jahangirnagar University are still there occupying its different dormitories defying the university administration’s instruction to leave the campus by 10 am on Monday, reports UNB.

Witnesses said the students are staging demonstrations at different halls to press home their 4-point demand.

Their demands include withdrawal of the order to leave halls, allowing the female students to stay in one dormitory, providing them with the documents of the case filed on behalf of the university over the attack on some students and inserting the names of those involved in the attack in the case.

Earlier in the day, the JU hall provosts conducted a drive in their dormitories and asked the students to leave the campus right away.

ASM Firoz Ul Hasan, acting proctor of the university and provost of AFM Kamal Uddin Hall, said, “We’ve come here to inform the students about the government order, and no student will be allowed to defy the government rule. We’ve requested the student to leave the dormitories.”

About the security of the students, he said, “We’ve filed a case with Ashulia Police Station, and provosts are talking to the students now living in their respective dormitories.”

The students, however, have decided not to leave their dormitories.

Earlier, the JU authorities asked the students, who entered the dormitories forcibly violating the government order, to leave those by Monday morning.

The university authorities issued a notice in this regard on Sunday night.

According to the notice, like other educational institutions, the classes and halls of JU remained closed since March 19, 2020, following a government order due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation.

On Saturday, some students unlocked the gates of some dormitories and took positions there defying the government order, it said.

In this situation, the JU authorities have asked the students to leave their dormitories by 10 am on Monday or else, it said, legal action will be taken against them.

On Saturday, the JU students unlocked the main gate of a dormitory as the authorities ‘did not take’ any step to fulfill their 3-point demand, including hall reopening.

They also threatened to take control of other halls and go for a tougher movement if their demands are not met.

On Friday, several students of the university were injured in an attack by the residents of a village adjacent to the campus.

Acting Proctor ASM Firoz Ul Hasan said the clash erupted following a dispute over a cricket match.

Four motorcycles, belonging to the students, were set ablaze by locals at Gerua Bazar in the evening. Later, locals gathered in the area responding to an announcement from a mosque’s loudspeaker and attacked the students.

Proctor Hasan said some students were confined to their mess-house at Gerua village.

On March 16 last year, the government closed all the educational institutions to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The closure was extended several times, most recently until February 28 this year.