Question leak protesters to hold solidarity rally again tomorrow

Agitating medical college admission seekers will hold a solidarity rally at the capital's Shahbagh at 4:00pm tomorrow, renewing the demand for rerun of the entrance test.

"Though we have been demonstrating for the last 33 days for a fresh exam, the authorities concerned did not respond positively to our logical demand; so we vowed to hold a solidarity rally at Shahbagh once again," said Ayatullah Hasnat Behesti, a representative of the protesters.

He made the announcement at a press briefing at TSC of Dhaka University yesterday.

Protests broke out against the admission test question leak since the exam was held on September 18.

On Tuesday, the agitators met the representatives of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) to form a public committee to investigate the leak but they failed to reach a consensus.

Behesti said, "BMA representatives assured us of extending their support by scrutinising the matter if we give them our evidence. But we demanded that they form a probe committee by including some credible persons. Since they rejected our proposal, we did not give them our evidence."

Acknowledging this, BMA's Dhaka city unit Vice-president Abdur Rauf Sarder said the body had to comprise only BMA members to remain impartial.

Meanwhile, the 17-member "public" committee which was formed by "concerned" citizens on Monday will start working through a general meeting at TSC at 5:00pm tomorrow.

Convener of the committee, economist Prof Anu Muhammad, yesterday told The Daily Star, "We will have an action plan, assign roles to the members and analyse the evidence."

The committee will prepare a report by November 20 and later submit it to the government authorities.

About BMA's proposal to investigate the leak, Prof Anu said, "BMA's position is not transparent. They should have had formed a probe committee of their own earlier."