Aashiq Abdullah
At the Dhaka University, Bangladesh Chhatra League first added fuel to the fire and then tried to douse it.
Leaders and activists of BCL, who have twice foiled the demonstration of students against the university's affiliation with seven colleges on the campus, had actually initiated the very movement.
Four of the five administrators of Dhaka Bishwabidyalay Paribar (Dhaka University Family), a Facebook group that launched the campaign against the affiliation, are leaders of different units of the pro-Awami League student body in the university.
They are: Motakabbir Khan Probas, vice-president of DU BCL; Zihadul Islam Nirob and SM Rakib, vice-president and organising secretary of Fazlul Haq Hall BCL; and Sadman Sakil, publication affairs secretary of political science department BCL, shows the FB group. Several BCL sources and students have confirmed their identities.
The fifth administrator, Nur Hossain, appears to have no political affiliation.
In the first week of this month, students from various departments started uploading posts in the group, expressing anger over the affiliation. They claimed that many from those seven colleges were damaging the university's reputation as they were "committing crimes after introducing themselves as DU students".
On January 7, Moshiur Rahman Sadik, a student of the university's software engineering department, created an event in the group, calling for demonstration near the TSC on January 11 for scrapping the affiliation.
Three days later, BCL leader Probas in a post in the group said, "DU itself is in trouble. DU does not have the ability to look after seven colleges. Take back the seven colleges under the National University."
He also urged the group members to share news regarding the anti-affiliation protests on their Facebook timelines, saying, "Let the countrymen know how unhappy the DU students are with the affiliation".
On January 11, several hundred students, including BCL activists, demonstrated on the campus as planned. Later, the protestors announced that they would boycott classes on January 14 and besiege the vice-chancellor's office the next day to press home their demand.
Sensing more trouble, the university authorities reportedly held a meeting with some top BCL leaders the same day and asked them to retreat. The Chhatra League leaders agreed to do that, alleged one of the coordinators of the demonstrators, wishing not to be named.
The BCL leaders then told the coordinators of the movement to stop the agitation right away, assuring them that the VC, Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman, would take initiatives to solve the crisis.
The coordinators, however, did not agree and the protest continued.
At 1:15am on January 15, Probas, who seemed to have been unaware of the developments, in another post uploaded in the group said, "As the seven colleges have been affiliated, some of their students were trying to misuse the logo of Dhaka University for their own means."
The next day, the protesters staged a sit-in in front of the VC's office. The VC reportedly called some BCL leaders to control the crowd without even talking to the demonstrators, alleged the coordinator.
About half an hour later, around 300 BCL activists, led by its top leaders, appeared there and started to hurl abuses at the female demonstrators. They also asked the male students to leave immediately.
The demo was foiled.
The Chhatra League men also took Sadik, one of the coordinators, inside the VC's office and roughed him up there.
The VC denied calling in the Chhatra League men.
Surprisingly, all posts made on the Facebook group were deleted the same night and the administrators, who run the group, were seen coming up with posts saying that the VC gave "clear solution" to the crisis.
- Courtesy: The Daily Star/Jan 30, 2013
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