Overnight protests after Rajshahi University student dies in truck accident

Rajshahi University students have held an overnight protest after a fellow student died after being hit by a truck in front of a residential hall.

The protesting students set fire to five trucks and blocked the Dhaka-Rajshahi Highway. They then took up positions outside the vice chancellor’s residence.

In the face of the students’ demands, Vice Chancellor Golam Shabbir Sattar made a verbal promise to withdraw the proctorial body.

“The vice chancellor has made a verbal promise to withdraw the proctorial body,” said Prof Pradeep Kumar Panday, the university’s administrator of public relations, on Wednesday. “The students have more demands and they will be discussed today. The official matters will be finalised at some point today.”

A truck carrying stones for a building under construction at Shaheed Habibur Rahman Hall struck a motorcycle carrying three students around 8:30 pm on Tuesday.

Mahmud Habib Himel, a final year student of the Fine Arts Faculty and general secretary of the Rajshahi University Drama Association, was killed on the spot.

Raihan Rimel, another student in the same year, was taken to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital in critical condition.

Himel’s body was not removed from the scene for nearly two and a half hours. Several members of the university administration and the faculty attempted to calm the students, but were unable to do so.

The body was finally taken to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital for autopsy at 10:45 pm.

Hundreds of agitated students gathered at the scene of the accident and set fire to five trucks involved in construction work. They also vandalised the building under construction and set fire to two rooms.

The students blocked police and fire service vehicles when they attempted to enter the campus.

A number of students blocked the Dhaka-Rajshahi Highway in front of the campus gates for three hours. They then set tires on fire in front of the vice chancellor’s residence in protest.

Rajshahi Mayor and Awami League Presidium Member AHM Khairuzzaman Liton went to the vice chancellor’s residence at 1:30 am to try and calm the students.

Vice Chancellor Sattar was at Rajshahi Medical and returned home around 2 am. The students submitted a written list of demands, including the removal of the proctorial body, a compensation payment of Tk 100 million to the victim’s family, a job for the victim’s sister at the university, changing the construction company involved and a proper investigation of the accident.

The vice chancellor made a verbal promise to the students regarding the removal of the proctorial body.

Himel’s funeral prayers would be held at the university’s central mosque on Wednesday and his body would be taken to his home in Natore, the vice chancellor said. Once those formalities were concluded, he promised to sit with the students for talks.

The vice chancellor also announced that construction work on the building would be stopped until the driver of the truck was caught. The students then dispersed.

A case is being prepared over the student’s death, said Anowar Hossain Tuhin, chief of Rajshahi’s Motihar Police Station.