Panic grips DU as JCD plans to enter campus, BCL says they are unwelcome

Fear and panic has gripped the Dhaka University campus as activists of the Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) have announced their return to campus on Tuesday, four months after heavy clashes with the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the ruling party, drove them out and declared them persona non grata.

Leaders of the JCD, the student wing of the BNP, have been asked to meet the DU's vice-chancellor, who has assured them of safety, which has done little to ease worries.

Compounding the unease, the BCL is also set to meet the VC in the afternoon on the same day.

Khorshed Alam Sohel, president of JCD, DU unit, told The Business Standard that they want to meet the VC in the morning.

"It will be unsafe for us in the afternoon," he said.

"We believe in peace and fight for the students' rights. So, we have a democratic right to go to the university. We will enter the campus at any cost on Tuesday. It will be an administrative failure if any organisation tries to prevent our entry," he said.

The BCL men on Monday cordoned the Dhaka University campus to check any entrance of the JCD leaders and activists. Some BCL activists were seen at campus entry points from morning till night, with others spread around the campus.

A third year student of Political Sciences told The Business Standard, "Like me many of my friends are in panic. A number of my friends will not come to campus on Tuesday," he said.

Sumaiya Jahan, a fourth year student of the university, told TBS that she was on the campus on Monday and observed a ferocious movement of the BCL.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Md Akhtaruzzaman has allowed five representatives of the newly-formed unit of the JCD to meet him at his office at 4:30pm.

On the other hand, the BCL will meet the VC at 3pm and have planned to gather hundreds of activists.

The BCL leaders also said that they will prevent the JCD's entry to the campus.

Professor Md Akhtaruzzaman, vice-chancellor of DU said, "I allowed them to come to my office. They can move anywhere on the campus maintaining their own safety."

The BCL men went to the campus after hearing that the JCD men had plans to enter the campus after the BCL declared the JCD unwanted in the campus following a clash on 26 May.

Saddam Hussain, general secretary of BCL, DU unit, told TBS that the JCD men have been trying to enter the campus to make an anarchy situation on the campus. They just use the campus to implement their evil motto.

"The BCL is always with the general students. The students never tolerate an unstable environment on the campus. So, JCD should not be allowed at DU," he said.

Dhaka University sources said the JCD were forced to leave the campus in 2010 and did not get any chance to enter the campus till 2019, the year of latest Dhaka University Central Student Union election.

From 2019, the JCD men practised politics on the campus but on 26 May this year, dozens of leaders and activists of the JCD and BCL were injured as they clashed on the Dhaka University campus. After the clash, BCL men took positions everywhere on the campus pushing the JCD men out of campus.