72-hr ultimatum

Staff Reporter :Students seeking admission into Dhaka University (DU) gave the university authorities 72-hour ultimatum to restore the old system of admission enabling them to appear twice for the intake examination of DU.They also threatened to arrange mass gathering at the Central Shaheed Minar Premises on October 25 along with their guardians if their demand is not met by October 22. “We demanded the restoration of the old system of admission enabling us to appear twice for the admission test. But the university authorities did not meet our request. We will organise mass gathering at the Shaheed Minar Premises on October 25, if they do not pay heed to our demand.” The students said this at a protest rally held at the base of Aparajeyo Bangla on the DU campus under the banner of ‘General Students’. DU Vice-Chancellor Professor A A M S Arefin Siddique, however, reiterated that the admission seekers’s demand is not acceptable. He said, “There is no chance of allowing them to sit twice for admission test.”He made the statement while replying to a query of journalists on Sunday afternoon.Meanwhile, police released five students, who were detained earlier, hours after they were held for demonstrating in front of TSC area on the university campus on Sunday morning.The demonstrating admission seekers were released after a brief detention at around 1pm on the condition of not holding any more programmes in the course of the day. The students have declared that they would submit a memorandum to the vice- chancellor of the university on October 21.The police at one stage dispersed the protesting students from the area and held five agitators from the spot.It may be mentioned that the Dhaka University authorities on Tuesday decided to allow only freshly passed HSC students to appear at its admission tests for a single year from the 2015-16 academic session, aiming to create an equal opportunity for all the aspirants.