Academic and administrative work at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) is still at a standstill after 19 days of protest by teachers, students, officers and staff. The administrative building remains locked.
The protest began after Prof Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem was removed as vice-chancellor on 21 September and Prof Sheikh Shariful Alam of Khulna University of Engineering and Technology was appointed in his place. Students have observed a “complete shutdown” since the following day and officers and staff have stopped work with the same demand. The new vice-chancellor has not been able to enter the campus; he says he took up the post on 24 September by sending his joining letter to the president and the education secretary.
On Friday he asked Prof Arafat Rahman of the mechanical engineering department to carry out the vice-chancellor’s routine duties on 11 and 12 October, while he is in Dhaka for a meeting of the University Grants Commission. Prof Arafat Rahman said he would try to persuade students to return to their studies as soon as possible.
Nafis Hasan, a fourth-year civil engineering student and one of the protesters, said the arrangement would have no effect on their movement. The students are demanding the reinstatement of Prof Sayem, he said, and the shutdown and the lock on the vice-chancellor’s office will stay until then.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report