Govt asks educational institutions for lists of students absent for over 10 days

The government has asked all educational institutions across Bangladesh to give lists of students who have been absent for over 10 straight days following findings that showed several youths had joined militant groups after running away from home.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 10 July 2016, 05:03 AM
Updated : 31 July 2016, 07:54 PM

The decision to demand the lists was taken at a meeting of education ministry officials, chaired by Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, at the Secretariat on Sunday.

The ministry also issued an office order in this regard, which said the institutions will have to make the lists of the absentee students and submit them to the Upazila education officers.

Nahid later told reporters that apart from submitting the lists, the authorities should also check whether ‘there is any abnormality in the behaviour of the students’.

The five youths who killed 22 people after attacking an upscale Gulshan cafe on Jul 1 night and whose photos the Islamic State reportedly released, had been missing or not contacting their families for several months, relatives have said.

Police also said the suspected attacker of Sholakia Eid gathering last Thursday, who was killed in a firefight, had been missing since March.

Four of these six youths were students of top and expensive English medium schools in Dhaka. Two of them were students of private North South University (NSU) and another of BRAC University.

The education minister said the attacks in Gulshan and Sholakia were tragic. “These incidents have shocked everyone.”

Nahid said he was ‘very concerned’ after seeing that youths from well-to-do families and having studied in top English medium schools and top universities were involved in these incidents.

“Our responsibilities have increased as students were involved. That’s why we are sending some directives to all educational institutions. More directives will follow later.”

Nurul Islam Nahid. File photo

“Different universities and educational institutions have contacted us, as we have reached out to them to discuss what measures we can take. We’ll follow the directives the prime minister has given us,” Nahid added.

He urged the managing bodies of the institutions and public representatives to play a responsible role along with others to stop the students from joining extremist groups.

“But the parents first will have to be on the lookout to detect any changes in their children and find out if they children are spending time where they shouldn’t after running away.

“If they let us know about any changes, we’ll take steps.”

Regarding the involvement of two NSU students in the two terrorist attacks, the minister said, “We’ll look into everything. The government has policies. We can’t take measures by publicly announcing it.”

Security forces have alerted the parents to report many youths from rich families leaving their homes to join militant groups.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has also urged the guardians to inform police if any of the children in their families are missing.

After the cafe attackers’ going missing came to light, parents of 10 more youths, who have been missing for several months, have urged them to come back.

They have also sought police help to find them.

The 10 missing youths are Mohammad Basharuzzaman from Tejgaon in Dhaka, Zunaid Khan from Badda, Nazibullah Ansari from Chapainawabganj, Ashraf Mohammad Islam from Dhaka, Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury from Sylhet, Ibrahim Hasan Khan from Dhaka, ATM Tajuddin from Lakshmipur, Zubaidur Rahim from Dhanmondi in Dhaka, Mohammad Saifullah Ojaki from Sylhet and Junnun Shikder.​