The shut down of International Islamic University Chittagong (IIUC) continues on Thursday amid ongoing demonstrations by the students, pressing home their 15-point demand. They also organised a sit-in demonstration on the campus.
The administration shut down the university on Wednesday amid protests.
Earlier on Sunday, the students began their demonstration on Sunday to press home their 15-point demands, including abolishing late fees, establishing necessary labs, relocating classrooms away from hall room of the dormitories,
However, the roadmap announced by the university authorities on Tuesday night failed to satisfy the students, prompting a complete university shutdown starting Wednesday.
The other demands are ensuring opportunities for improvement in all semesters, modernisation of transportation, and renovation of medical halls.
Ridwanul Islam, a third-year student of the Department of Computer and Communication Science, said, “We want the authorities to promptly announce a student-friendly revised roadmap addressing our 15-point demands, which aligns with our long-standing expectations. Additionally, steps must be taken to prevent unnecessary harassment during exams or at other times. If anyone tries to delegitimize our movement, we will strongly resist, but we do not intend to create any chaos.”
Russel Mahmud, an eighth-semester student and one of the protesters from the same department, told TIMES of Bangladesh, “If the administration takes genuine and effective steps rather than delaying with empty roadmaps, we will accept it and call off the movement.”
University Proctor Mostafa Munir Chowdhury said, “We have announced a roadmap to implement the students’ demands. Most students have accepted it, but some have not. We suspect that some external non-students and political agendas are trying to destabilize the campus by exploiting the movement.”
