The namaz-e-janaza (funeral prayer) of Jahangirnagar University teacher Jannatul Ferdous was held on Friday afternoon, shortly after Jumma prayers, at the university’s central playground.
Her body was brought to campus where colleagues, students, and well-wishers gathered to pay their respects. A second janaza will be held at her ancestral home in Pabna.
Ferdous, an assistant professor in the Department of Fine Arts, passed away on Friday morning after collapsing while performing her duties as a polling and returning officer during the ongoing JUCSU elections.
Associate Professor Shamim Reza, head of the Fine Arts department, confirmed that she had fallen unconscious at the entrance of Pritilata Hall, where she was overseeing the vote count. She was immediately rushed to Enam Medical College Hospital in Savar but was declared dead upon arrival.
According to Professor AKM Rashidul Alam, JU Proctor and Secretary of the Election Commission, Ferdous had been present at the hall early in the morning to continue vote counting, which had remained incomplete due to the previous night’s exhaustion and absence of polling agents in some halls.
“She collapsed at the door before entering the hall,” said Alam. “Despite quick medical intervention, she could not be saved. The entire campus is in mourning. We express our deepest condolences to her grieving family.”
Anjuman, a student from the 50th batch of the Fine Arts department, partially blamed the election commission, saying, “We were completely unprepared for something like this. She was highly respected among us, someone we all turned to for support.”
The student from Jahangirnagar University has strongly criticised the manual vote-counting process in the ongoing JUCSU election, calling it “unreasonable and inefficient.”
“The claim by Chhatra Dal that ballot papers had to be counted by hand is illogical,” the student said. “The Election Commission’s insistence on manual counting has led to unnecessary pressure and harassment of several returning officers — some of whom have fallen ill due to exhaustion.”
Drawing a comparison, the student added, “At Dhaka University, nearly 40,000 votes were counted using electronic machines and the results were published within 12 hours. Here, we had only 8,016 votes — yet even after 21 hours, the final results were still unavailable.”
