Meanwhile, the authorities of the seven colleges — Dhaka College, Eden Mohila College, Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College, Kabi Nazrul Government College, Begum Badrunnesa Government Mohila College, Mirpur Government Bangla College, and Government Titumir College — Thursday announced the exam schedules following the protest.
Earlier in the morning, several hundred students of the colleges, who have been demanding announcement of exam schedules for the last few months, formed a human chain in front of the National Museum at about 10:00 am. At about 11:30 am, they occupied the busy Shahbagh intersection, causing traffic congestion in the area.
Police thwarted the demonstration with batons and teargas canisters. After the police action, the law enforcers filed a lawsuit alleging attempted murder on policemen against 1,200 such students. Other charges include rioting, obstructing police and unlawful assembly.
The college students were unarmed while protesting at Shahbagh on Thursday. Nobody saw them to damage any vehicles or attack anyone. In fact, police pounced on them with batons and fired teargas shells. This can’t be acceptable behaviour by the police–it was not that they were criminals selling Yaba but only students who were peaceably protesting.
During a press conference at Madhur Canteen on Dhaka University campus on July 21, the students demanded withdrawal of the case, compensation to Siddiqur Rahman, a policy on the colleges affiliated with the DU and steps to ease session jams. They said they will go for a tougher movement if the authorities do not take actions against the policemen who attacked students without any provocation.
In a separate development, representatives of the agitating students met Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique at his office on July 23. After a one and half hour long meeting representatives of the students said they did not receive any clear assurance of having their demands met.
Students of third year and Master’s of 2013-2014 Sessions had their registration done but no date of exam was fixed until Tuesday’s meeting. Besides, there was no guideline from the University authorities regarding the exam process although four months have gone since they were affiliated with Dhaka University. So why would they not protest? And why should the police go for such a tough action–they could have requested them to postpone their campaign while the police could have talked to their administrators.
Excessive tear gas and baton charges are normally used by forces motivated by hatred .Our police cannot have hatred against our students. Whether they are police or politicians all must know that they have no other country to go to live safely. We must all learn to live safely together in our country.
