We don’t want to see a recurrence of such brutal killings

All we long for is that an innocent life like Abrar Fahad's will no more fall victim to brutal killings on university campuses. From time to time, students of different universities have been subjected to killings, torture and assault.

All students of an educational institution like Buet are meritorious. The country has not only lost a promising life like Abrar, but also the 25 students who have been awarded death and life sentences in the murder case.

The politics of sycophantic party loyalty is mainly to blame for such heinous acts. Nowadays, all those engaged in student politics work for their personal gains. There is a tendency of showing no tolerance to different opinions, ideologies and beliefs in society.

Leaders and activists of ruling parties and of their student wings regard themselves superior to others and thus act in a haughty or snobbish manner.

We have to rein in such a bad culture at any cost and create a culture of tolerance of politics expressive of different opinions. For this goal to be achieved, all responsible people at every level of society have to come forward. Besides, parents have a crucial role to play here – they have to impart to their children lessons on morality and humanity from their childhood.

The Abrar murder shook the conscience of the entire nation. It has also instilled a kind of negative idea about a top educational institution like Buet in people's minds. The government together with all educational institutions should work strongly and firmly towards dispelling all kinds of negativity in society about university students and teachers.

In the current trend of politics, student wings abide by what their parent parties say. In this form of student politics, mismanagement, malpractices, clashes over tenders – indeed all kinds of abuse and misuse of power – come to the fore. Such undue power practices have ruined student politics. They have no ideology of serving people. These realities have to be rolled back.

Teachers' politics should also be banned in universities. They will have political rights, but they will maintain political neutrality. They will do politics conducive to education – this is what all people want. Qualified people have to be vice-chancellors. 

Universities need to improve the overall learning environment. Arrangements need to be made to conduct various educational activities more strongly. But all these depend on political goodwill.

Sultana Kamal expressed her instant reaction to the verdict in the Abrar Fahad murder case to Rezaul Karim of TBS over the phone.