Bangladeshi teachers to boycott classes demanding Hasinas release

Teachers of Bangladeshs Dhaka University are observing a half-day work abstention today, demanding immediate release of the countrys former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and halt repressions on other former primer Khaleda Zia.

By Nazrul Islam

Dhaka, July 22 : Teachers of Bangladesh's Dhaka University are observing a half-day work abstention today, demanding immediate release of the country's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and halt repressions on other former primer Khaleda Zia.

On Saturday, they attended classes wearing black badges as a mark of protest against repressive measures by the army-led interim administration of Fakhruddin Ahmed against top politicians, Professor Anwar Hossain, General Secretary of Dhaka University Teachers Association, said.

"It is a call to our conscience...we protest because the government crossed the limit of its constitutional mandate," Harun-or-Rashid, the Dean of a social science faculty, told ANI, adding that their next course of action depends on the government's response to their five-point decisions they resolved at an emergency meeting on Thursday.

The teachers, under the banner of Dhaka University Teachers Association (DUTA), at the meeting demanded unconditional release of Sheikh Hasina and condemned repressive measures against Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief Khaleda Zia and other national leaders.

Hasina was detained by the army-led joint forces on July 16 from her private residence in the Capital.

Teachers also strongly protested the reported government move to eliminate the two former primers from Bangladesh's political scene, and demanded removal of the law, justice and parliamentary affairs adviser, Mainul Hosein, from the council of advisers for his politically motivated statements.

Students in general also expressed solidarity with the teachers' movement, which the intelligence agencies were trying to foil.

The plainclothesmen quizzed a number of senior teachers and insisted not to carry forward the protest programme violating the emergency powers rules that banned all sorts of protest under the state of emergency proclaimed on January 11.

DUTA General Secretary Anwar alleged that an unknown caller on Friday night threatened him of kidnapping his family members unless he stops the programme. He lodged complain with the university authority asking for his enhanced security.

Meanwhile, a group of students, mostly the members of the Awami League's student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League, brought out a procession on the campus amid tight security yesterday. They demanded immediate release of their detained leader and called upon the students to make a country-wide strike in educational institutions successful on Sunday.

The authorities deployed additional security forces on Dhaka University campus to avert any untoward incident.

Students and teachers of the Dhaka University had played pivotal role in all democratic movements. Beginning from the struggle for language in 1952, the students in Bangladesh remained in the leading position in all the movements, including the country's liberation war in 1971 and anti-autocratic movement in the 1980s leading to resumption of a democratic system of governance in 1990.

Dhaka university teachers say they will continue their movement until the interim administration stops repressive activities in the name of so-called political reforms.

ANI