The agitating students of BUET have threatened to lock up all administrative buildings of the university unless their 10-point charter of demands are met by Friday, report agencies.
The demonstrations over the killing of Abrar Fahad on October 6 continued into the 4th consecutive day as the annoyed students assembled in front of the Central Shaheed Minar on the Dhaka University campus to press home their demands on Thursday. Abrar, a second year electrical and electronic engineering student of BUET, was tortured to death inside the university's Sher-e-Bangla Hall on October 6.
The 10-point demand highlighted some major issues like the Vice Chancellor Saiful Islam's failure to address the issue to the students for over 30 hours after the incident. However, when the VC finally did appear before them, the protesters alleged that he had misbehaved with them.
"He (the VC) didn't answer any of our questions and left without talking to us. We hope the VC will return by 2pm on Friday and talk to us. If not then locks will hang on all BUET buildings," a protester said on Thursday. On Tuesday, Saiful told the protesters that he agreed “in principle” with their then eight-point demands, but the students continued with their agitation programme outside his office.
They later set out a new 10-point demand on Wednesday with a deadline of Oct 15 for its implementation. The demands include calls for the withdrawal of the provost of Sher-e-Bangla Hall and the identification and expulsion of the killers from the university within Oct 11, among others. The provost Zafar Iqbal Khan subsequently resigned from the post later in the day.
But the protesters on Thursday claimed they had not received a formal announcement of his resignation and therefore will carry on pressing for the 10 points in their charter.
