BCL announces protest rally at Shaheed Minar demanding to bring back student politics on Buet campus
The move comes as the students of Buet are staging a protest for the second day in front of Buet Shaheed Minar against the entry of BCL leaders on the campus.
The Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the ruling party's student wing, has announced a protest rally in the capital's Central Shaheed Minar tomorrow (31 March) at 11am, demanding student politics be allowed back on the campus of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
The move comes as the students of Buet are staging a protest for the second day in front of Buet Shaheed Minar against the entry of BCL leaders on the campus.
In response to the protest, the university authorities swiftly acted by revoking the dormitory allotment of Imtiaz Rabbi, a student of the Civil Engineering department and a central BCL leader.
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The Buet administration, in a press release, also confirmed the formation of a committee to investigate the entire issue. It added that actions will be taken as per the university's regulations upon receipt of the committee's report.
In a statement today (30 March), the BCL said, "The Buet administration has obstructed the constitutional right to association of Imtiaz Hossain Rahim Rabbi by revoking the allotted seat."
It also said, "According to the Engineering and Technological University Ordinance, 1961, Buet is an educational institution run with the expense of the people of Bangladesh and governed by the Constitution and the prevailing laws of the state. Even though the Act does not give Buet the power to ban student politics, the Buet administration is implementing the ban illegally and unconstitutionally."
Despite the ban on student politics at the Buet campus following the murder of Abrar Fahad, a few leaders and activists of the Chhatra League allegedly entered the campus and conducted political activities last Wednesday (27 March) night.
Expressing their anger at this incident, the protesting students boycotted all sorts of academic activities and made several demands to the Buet administration in written form yesterday afternoon.
They issued an ultimatum to the university authorities calling for the expulsion of Imtiaz Rabbi and five others involved in politics at the university campus by 2pm today (30 March).
After the murder of Abrar Fahad, who was beaten to death by Chhatra League activists at the university's Sher-e-Bangla Hall on 7 October 2019, the Buet administration implemented a ban on student politics on campus.
Later, on 8 December 2021, a Dhaka court sentenced 20 Buet students to death and five others to life imprisonment for the killing of Abrar, a second-year student of the electrical and electronics engineering (EEE) department at Buet.
