Hunger Strike at Bhasani University Continues
Over 50 students fall sick, authorities still unmoved
Mainul Hasan, a fasting student at Maolana Bhasani University of Science and Technology who fell seriously sick at Tangail General Hospital, was referred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Friday.Photo: STAR
Students of food technology and nutritional science (FTNS) department at Maolana Bhasani University of Science and Technology (MBUST) continued their fast unto death for the eighth day yesterday but the authorities still remained unmoved. Over 50 students of the department fell sick and admitted to Tangail General Hospital in last few days. Of them, fourth year student Mainul Hasan, third year student Nurunnabi Siddique and first year student Atiqur Rahman were referred to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) yesterday and the day before. Condition of some of the sick students were deteriorating as they refused to take food and medicine even at the hospital, sources in Tangail General Hospital said. Over 200 students of FTNS department started their fast unto death programme at Shaheed Smrity Pouro Udyan in Tangail town on May 14 for the second time to realise their two-point demand. The demands are removal of the vice-chancellor (VC) of the university and giving BSc (Engineering) degree instead of BSc (Honours) degree to the FTNS students. Meantime, guardians of the students held a token hunger strike in the town on Friday in support of students' demands. Talking to the newsmen, the guardians urged the education minister to take action against the VC for his indifferent attitude and save lives of their children. They also threatened that the guardians would also start fast unto death if the demands of the students are not met by today (Sunday). Rubel Ahmed, elder brother of fourth year student Mainul Hasan, who has been shifted to DMCH, told this correspondent that though the meritorious students are fighting for their lives at the hospitals, no step was taken so far to solve their problems. He warned that the university authorities, especially the VC, would be held responsible if the situation and condition of any student go beyond control. Abdur Rashid, father of third year student Aktaruzzaman said, though several universities in the country have already arranged engineering degree for their food department students by making slight changes in their syllabus, the students of MBUST are deprived of it due to indifference of the university authorities, especially the VC. “These innocent and meritorious children have already lost about one year of their academic life due to non-stop class boycott,” he added. Contacted, Prof M Nurul Islam, vice-chancellor (VC) of MBUST, told this correspondent yesterday that the university authorities still strongly believe that arrangement of engineering degree will not bear any good to the FTNS students. “We hope that the agitating FTNS students as well as their guardians would realise this," the VC added.a
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