Jahangirnagar University protesters to organise concert outside VC’s home

The Jahangirnagar University teachers and students demonstrating for the ouster of Vice-Chancellor Prof Farzana Islam for alleged corruption are determined to continue agitation on the campus.

Their announcement came on Wednesday after the authorities threatened to call in police to clear the residential halls.

After daylong demonstrations, protesters gathered outside the VC’s residence on the campus in the afternoon and announced programmes for Thursday in the evening, including a concert there.

Mushfiq Us Salehin, one of the organisers of the protests, said they would leave the place in the night and gather at 9am on Thursday to lay siege to the administrative building.

They would take out a procession at 12pm and organise a painting campaign outside the VC’s home in the evening before the concert, Salehin said.

Associate Prof Rayhan Rhyne, a spokesman for the protesters, said they would continue demonstrations through rallies, processions and siege.

The protesting students would try to stay in the residential halls despite the authorities’ order to leave, he said.

“We will arrange alternative for their stay if the authorities force them out,” he added.

A huge number of police personnel were deployed on the campus.

Acting Proctor ASM Firoz Ul Hasan claimed most students other than the protesters left the campus.

He objected to former students joining the protests.

The protests were launched in August after BCL activists allegedly took extortion money from the administration when the university was granted a sum for development.

The authorities met two demands of the protesters in September after weeks of protests, but did not fulfil the demand for investigation into corrupt practices refuelling the demonstrations.

DAYLONG DEMONSTRATIONS

Earlier, the provost committee decided to use police to clear the halls if the protesters refuse to leave.

The authorities shut down the university on Tuesday for an indefinite period after activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League attacked protesters who demanded that VC Farzana resign for alleged corruption.

But the move did little to quell the unrest as students and teachers continued their protest on Wednesday.

They gathered on the campus' Murad Chattar around 9am and drove out the staffers and officials from the new administrative building.

More than hundred students brought out a procession from Murad Chattar at 10:30am. They chanted slogans against the decision to close down the halls and Chhatra League’s attack on protesters.

A group of teachers and students of Jahangirnagar University continue demonstrations demanding resignation of Vice-Chancellor Farzana Islam for alleged corruption on Wednesday after the authorities shut the institution down.

“We’ll move our protest programme forward step by step. We can’t share our course of action at the moment as the halls are being vacated and students are not safe in the hands of the university administration,” said Prof Rhyne.

Acting Proctor Firoz, however, claimed the protest rally and procession was “illegal”.

“The highest administrative body of the university syndicate decided for the students to vacate halls and shut down the campus. It is illegal and in violation of the law to defy the decision and stage rallies and processions. I urge them all to follow the law,” he told bdnews24.com.