Mob rule has no place on campus

The assault on Assistant Prof Hasan Muhammad Roman Shuvo by a group of students led by Abdullah Al Noman, office secretary of the Chittagong University Central Students' Union, marks a low point for campus politics and university governance. Multiple video clips clearly show Noman and others dragging the teacher by the neck and forcibly taking him to the proctor’s office. This was not an isolated incident, nor is it open to interpretation. It was a public act of physical violence.

What is most alarming is not the assault itself but the complete moral collapse it represents. An elected student leader who should have prevented violence, in fact led it. And yet, even after multiple videos emerged on social media, there has been no visible disciplinary action against him. This silence from the university administration is indefensible.

Dragging a teacher by the neck is not a “protective act,” as Noman later claimed. It is assault. Saying that “some students wanted to beat him” does not absolve his responsibility to defuse the tension. On the contrary, it confirms that this was, in fact, a mob with a student leader at its front. The claim that the teacher “was not harassed” is an insult to common sense and basic intelligence.

Universities are meant to uphold due process, not mob rule. If allegations exist against a teacher, the institution has clear mechanisms for investigation. The proctor himself has confirmed that the teacher is already facing multiple probes. A teacher, or anyone for that matter, could be facing charges but that must not warrant such treatment on campus. The fact that he was facing charges alone makes the assault even more unjustifiable. When investigations are ongoing, taking the law into one’s own hands is simply lawlessness.

The Chittagong University administration must also answer uncomfortable questions. How did such violence take place in broad daylight, during an admission test, without immediate intervention? Why was the teacher not protected? Why has no action been announced against Abdullah Al Noman despite overwhelming visual evidence? By remaining passive, the university is effectively normalising violence as a tool of campus politics.

This incident sends a terrifying message to teachers, students, and incoming freshmen alike. It tells them that power, not principle, determines safety. That slogans can replace evidence. That elected positions can be used as shields against accountability.

Invoking the July Uprising to justify this act is a profound distortion of history. A movement born out of resistance to oppression cannot be used to legitimise coercion and physical abuse. Doing so demeans its sacrifices and betrays its values.

The university must act immediately. If violence led by student leaders goes unpunished, universities will cease to be spaces of learning and become arenas of fear. That line has now been crossed. How the authorities respond will define whether Chittagong University stands for justice or quietly submits to mob rule.