Violent Agitation for Renaming of Degree
Students keep Bhasani university VC, 150 staff confined for 5 hours
Fire brigade men spray water to disperse the agitating students of Food Technology and Nutritional Science Department in front of the administrative building of Moulana Bhasani University of Science and Technology, right, policemen beat a student of the department yesterday. PHOTO: STAR
LATEST: Bhasani university authorities in an urgent meeting yesterday suspended all activities including classes and examinations of Food Technology and Nutritional Science (FTNS) department for indefinite period. They also directed the 207 students of the department to leave the campus and dormitories by 6:00 pm yesterday. Students of Food Technology and Nutritional Science (FTNS) Department of Maolana Bhasani University of Science and Technology (MBUST) yesterday confined the vice-chancellor (VC) and 150 other staffs to their office rooms for five hours demanding BSc (Engineering) degree instead of BSc (Honours) degree. The students locked the administrative building at about 11:00am and police freed the VC and other staffs at 4:15pm. At least 15 agitating students of the department were injured when police charged baton to disperse them from the premises of the VC office. Earlier, the Fire Brigade men sprayed water on the agitating students. Police also arrested 10 students of the department from the campus. The arrestees are fourth year students Sifat Mohammad Arefin and Mahbub Hasan, third year students Reaz Ali, Hossain Mohammad Liton, Rana Ahmed, Atiqur Rahman, Mohammad Sunny and Nishadur Rahman, and second year students Rony Ahmed and Babu Kanta Sen. Of the injured, eight were identified as Abdullah Al Hadi, Saikat Talukder, Shafiq Ahmed Farazee, Adrita, Labonnya, Sadia, Saima Sharmin and Surmi. The students of Food Technology and Nutritional Science (FTNS), Environmental Science and Resource Management (ESRM) and Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (BGE) departments of MBUST started agitation and boycott of classes simultaneously on July 20 last demanding BSc (Engineering) degree instead of BSc (Honours) degree. They gave memo to the vice-chancellor and department teachers on several occasions and also held token hunger strikes, sit-in programmes for realising their demand. As the university authorities later banned all agitation programmes on the campus, the students of the three departments held human chains in the town and press conferences at Tangail Press Club. Meantime, the vice-chancellor called five representatives from each of the three departments for talk before the Eid-ul-Fitr. Representatives from ESRM and BGE departments took part in the talk and decided to return to classes but FTNS department representatives abstained and continued their agitation. After the Eid vacation, the FTNS students resumed their agitation and submitted a memorandum to the VC on September 18 to realise their one-point demand they also gave a 72-hour ultimatum in this regard. The FTNS students told this correspondent that they had returned to the classes after a meeting with the university authorities on August 17 as they were assured of meeting their demand immediately but later the authorities did not keep their commitments. Meanwhile, sources said that the university authorities later yesterday agreed to hold talks on the demand on Sunday next but the agitated students remained unmoved.
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