Terrorism: UGC team visits Dhaka’s North South University

Regulators have paid a visit to Dhaka’s North South University, which is facing flak after several of its students were found to be involved in terrorism.

A four-member team from the University Grant Commission (UGC) went to the private university’s campus at Bashundhara around noon on Thursday.

“The UGC went there as part of an ongoing investigation,” said Omar Faruk, its deputy director for public relations, told bdnews24.com.

The regulators had visited the university on Aug 19 last year following allegations of militant activities and financial irregularities.

A member of that team had told bdnews24.com that the authorities failed to give a satisfactory explanation when asked why Jihadi books had been kept in the library.

The UGC team had sent a report to the Ministry of Education but did not receive any ‘feedback’.

Sources inside the ministry said the report had been acknowledged and North South University was sent a show-cause letter with a deadline which expired six months ago.

The university came under scrutiny after the killing of blogger and Ganajagaran Mancha activist Rajib Haider in 2013. The young men arrested for hacking him to death were all student of the Electronics and Electrical Engineering (EEE) at the university.

They are Sadman Yasir Mamun, Faisal Bin Nayeem Dwip, Ehsan Reza Rumman, Maksudul Hasan Anik, Nayeem Irad and Nafiz Imtiaz.

Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, who tried to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank in 2012, was also a student of North South University before he migrated to the United States. 

The deadly terror attack which took place at a Gulshan cafe on Jul 1, involved one student, Nibras Islam, who disappeared for months before storming the Holey Artisan Bakery where, he and the other gunmen killed 20, mostly foreign hostages.

Before a week, a check post guarding Bangladesh’s the largest prayer congregation at Kishoreganj’s Sholakia came under attack on Eid day.

Two police constables died after being hacked and bombed by attackers, one of them, a North South University student Abir Rahman. He died when police began shooting. His family said he was missing for four months. 

Hasanat Reza Karim, a former teacher at the university, was among the hostages freed by the cafe gunmen. Police said he was one of the suspects but now denies having him in custody. 

Law enforcers have a list of ten students who were reported missing by their families, since most of the cafe attackers were missing for months. 

Among them Junnun Shikder and Basharuzzaman were North South University students.

Set up in 1992, the university now has 22,000 students.