Over 300 Rajshahi University (RU) teachers and students yesterday observed “Student-Teacher Repression Day” marking the countrywide atrocities on their fellows from August 20 to 23 in 2007 during the military-backed caretaker government rule.
On August 20, 2007, army personnel beat three Dhaka University (DU) students and insulted a teacher in the DU gymnasium playground during a football match. Protests led to clashes between police and students, spreading from DU to the rest of the country’s educational institutions.
During the clashes in RU, a rickshaw-puller was killed, around 200 people were injured, vehicles were torched and properties, including the vice-chancellor’s (VC) residence, were damaged.
After bringing out a protest procession on the campus around 11:30am yesterday, the teachers and students held a discussion at the RU senate bhaban where they demanded exemplary punishment for law enforcers who carried out the atrocities in RU.
VC Prof Muhammad Mizanuddin, former VC Prof Saidur Rahaman, Pro-VC Prof Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan, Prof Maloy Kumar Bhoumik, Prof Golam Sabbir and Prof Dulal Chandra Biswas addressed the programme.
-With The Daily Star input
