Three SUST BCL leaders suspended

Three leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League’s Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) unit were suspended temporarily late monday night for their alleged involvement in the attacks carried out on teachers last Sunday.
Chhatra League central committee President Saifur Rahman Shohag confirmed the Dhaka Tribune of the suspension midnight yesterday. He, however, did not confirm the names, but said the names would be made public today.
However, the student front sources said the suspended leaders are SUST unit Chhatra League senior vice-presidents Abu Sayeed Akanda and Anjan Roy, and Joint General Secretary Sajedul Islam Sabuj.
Shohag said they were temporarily suspended because of their alleged involvement in the attacks on teachers. “Further steps will be taken if the allegations are proved,” he added.
Meanwhile, teachers of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology observed work abstention yesterday and demonstrated on the campus to protest Chhatra League’s recent attack on their colleagues.
Their work abstention would continue for the rest of the week, the protesting teachers’ body have also announced.
Ignoring the morning rain yesterday, the SUST teachers called for the resignation of the vice-chancellor, Aminul Haque Bhuyan.
The teachers of the university wore black badges as a form of protest before gathering for a rally in front of the VC office around 11am.
Addressing the protest programme, noted educationist Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, who also teaches at the university’s computer science and engineering department, said he was suffering a terrible mental anguish after seeing his own university’s students assaulting their teachers.
Physical wounds could be ignored, but a mental trauma like Sunday’s incident can never be healed, said Iqbal, a secular figure and a popular science-fiction writer who had played a key role in founding the university 30 years ago.
Prof Yasmeen Haque, another SUST founding figure who was one of those assaulted by Chhatra League men on Sunday, said she never thought that her 20 years of teaching at the university would be repaid with such violence.
Questioning why the police stayed silent against the attackers, Zafar Iqbal’s wife Yasmeen said she does not expect any justice to be served as no punishment was adequate for those assaulting the teachers who had built the university from the ground up.
Prof Syed Shamsul Alam, the convener of the SUST’s Forum of Teachers Inspired by the Ideals of Liberation War, said the Chhatra League activists had committed the worst offence the university has seen since its founding.
Accusing the VC to be behind the assault, the teacher said there could be nothing more shameful than teachers being beaten up by a VC-led gang of goons.
Later in the evening, Prof Shamsul Alam announced that the teachers under the forum have decided to observe work abstention for the next three days as well. The teachers would also stage different programmes including a token hunger strike, processions and rallies on the campus, he added.
On the other hand, students from different departments of the university also formed a human chain in front of the SUST central library yesterday demanding punishment for those behind the attack.
On Sunday, activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League assaulted a group of SUST teachers who were protesting the vice-chancellor’s corruption and irregularities. At least seven teachers were injured in the attack.
The teachers – some of whom were among the founders of the university – accuse the
VC of violating rules in recruiting his brother-in-law, making university staff do his personal tasks, misusing public funds, embezzling university’s money to go on foreign trips
and discriminating against some of his colleagues.