Photo: Collected
Students have continued a complete shutdown for the last ten days demanding the reinstatement of Professor Dr Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem, the just-removed vice-chancellor of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET). At the same time, teachers and officers and employees are observing a sit-in programme for the fifth consecutive day in support of the students’ demand.
On Thursday the students organised a photography exhibition and a protest concert on the campus; the teachers also observed a sit-in programme. As they remain firm on realising their demand, the university’s normal activities are shut and regular classes and labs are not being held.
The new vice-chancellor, Professor Sheikh Shariful Alam, joined CUET online from 24 September. But as the teachers and students have rejected him, and because of the ongoing movement, he has not been able to go to the campus; he has been staying at Chattogram Circuit House for the last eight days.
It is learnt that the protesting students observed the ‘complete shutdown’ and a strict sit-in programme at the university’s main gate from 8am yesterday. The teachers, on the other hand, took position in front of the vice-chancellor’s building from 11am.
On the tenth day of the movement, the students organised a photography exhibition and a protest concert in front of the vice-chancellor’s building as a new programme. The exhibition, which ran from 5:30pm to 8pm, presented various incidents of the last nine days of the movement and images of the students’ protest. The protest concert was held at the same place from 6pm.
Moumita Dutta Priya, a third-year student of CUET’s civil engineering department, said their protest programme is going on for the tenth day demanding the reinstatement of Dr Sayem sir. Their voice of protest over the last ten days has been reflected in the photography exhibition, and the silence of the administration has also been strongly criticised. She said the movement will continue until the former vice-chancellor is reinstated.
Incidentally, Professor Dr Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem of the university’s mechanical engineering department was appointed vice-chancellor of CUET on 27 July. Within 56 days of his taking charge, he was removed on 21 September and Professor Dr Sheikh Shariful Alam of the Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering department of Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET) was appointed vice-chancellor of CUET. Since then, students brought out protest processions on the campus against the change of vice-chancellor and, at the end of the procession, put a lock on the vice-chancellor’s building. An all-out shutdown and mass sit-in programme began from the next morning. The university teachers’ association and the organisations of officers and employees also observed programmes expressing solidarity with the students’ demand. Effectively, a deadlock has been created since then over the demand for the reinstatement of Professor Sayem. At present CUET has 6,367 students and 361 teachers in 18 departments.
