Published : 02 Oct 2026, 08:06 PM
Updated : 02 Oct 2026, 08:06 PM
Students of the Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) held a protest march on Friday, a weekend holiday, demanding the reinstatement of Prof Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem as the vice-chancellor.
Their march began in front of the university's central mosque around 2pm on Friday, the 11th day of the ongoing movement demanding his reinstatement.
The march started in front of the central mosque, passed through Swadhinata Chattar and ended in front of the Central Shaheed Minar.
After the march, a fourth-year student said: "[Friday] is the 11th day of our movement. We are still not getting any response from the high-ups regarding our demands. Today's march is to protest this."
“Our classes and exams are all suspended. We have decided not to return to class until our demands are met. We want a positive outcome from Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.”
Another protesting student said, “We have also held a protest march [on Friday] on a holiday to protest the silence and inaction of the administration. We are all in uncertainty.
“We want an end to this uncertainty. We have been longing for our country’s leader [Tarique] to intervene and find a solution to this since the first day. We want to return to class.”
Previously, students had held various programmes, including torchlit processions, red card displays, and black-cloth protests demanding the reinstatement of Prof Sayem as the vice-chancellor.
All academic activities, including classes and examinations, at the university have been suspended since Sept 22 due to the protests.
Prof Sayem, of the university's Department of Mechanical Engineering, took over as the vice-chancellor of CUET on Jul 27.
On Sept 21, he was relieved of the post and Sheikh Shariful Alam, a professor of the electronics and communication engineering department of the Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET), was appointed as the vice-chancellor.
That night, students launched protests on campus against the decision to change the vice-chancellor after 56 days. Later, they announced a shutdown programme demanding the reinstatement of Prof Sayem. The shutdown and boycott of classes and exams began on Sept 22.
Amid the protests, Prof Shariful joined as vice-chancellor online on the afternoon of Sept 24. However, he did not go to the CUET campus until Friday.
