Clamour grows for reopening halls of different universities

Students of different universities, including Dhaka, Rajshahi, Jahangirnagar and Chattogram, have intensified their protests with the demand of reopening halls, which had been kept closed citing pandemic. 

The students of Dhaka University (DU) broke into the Shahidullah hall on Monday, two days after the protesting students of Jahangirnagar University did the same.

Around 100 students broke the lock and entered the DU hall around 12pm.

DU Vice Chancellor Aktaruzzaman told The Business Standard, "We are in a meeting over the issue and looking into the matter."

Demanding to reopen the university campus and halls, some students of the university gathered in front of Curzon hall premises around 11.30am and marched towards Shahidullah hall.

DU proctor Professor AKM Golam Rabbani told The Business Standard, "We will sit with the students to find out a solution regarding the issue and hope get a positive result."

Meanwhile, the female students of JU broke into the Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa hall today afternoon and paraded the campus with a procession.

JU students started a protest on Saturday to press home their several demands, a day after some fellow students were attacked by the locals of adjacent Gerua village over a cricket tournament. At one stage of the protest, the agitating students broke the locks of some halls and took position there.

Rajshahi University (RU) students have issued a warning that they would break down the locks to enter the halls on 1 March if those are not reopened by 28 February.

The students of Islamic University, Kushtia also raised the same demand today. A group of students of Kushtia's Islamic University (IU) continued their protests on Monday in demand of reopening of residential facilities for students before the authorities hold examinations.

The universities suspended academic activities and vacated halls in March last year amid the outbreak of dreaded Covid-19 in Bangladesh. School and colleges also remained closed from same month. Classes and examinations were taken online during the pandemic.