The Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology authorities on Thursday announced the closure of the institution for an indefinite period reportedly to tackle the ongoing student protest over the death of their two fellows in a road crash.
The university authorities also asked the male students to leave their hall by 5:00pm on Thursday and the female students to leave the hall by 9:00am on Friday.
Defying the directive to leave their halls, the students continued to stage demonstration into the night on Thursday by blocking the Chattogram-Kaptai highway near their institution in Raujan upazila in the district for the fourth consecutive day.
They also burnt two buses of Shah Amanat Paribahan.
Additional police forces were deployed at the university area.
Till filing of this report about 9:00pm, the university authorities were holding meeting with around 20 students on the campus.
The university authorities made the decisions at the 151st emergency academic meeting presided over by vice chancellor professor Mohammad Rafiqul Alam, CUET registrar professor Sheikh Muhammad Humayun Kabir confirmed the news.
The registrar said that the decisions were taken to tackle the situation as the students continued their protest and rejected all the classes and examinations.
鈥楾he problem is that the situation has not been solved even after all the demands [of the agitating students] were accepted. It has compelled to close the institute,鈥� he said.
After the announcement in the afternoon, students began demonstration in front of the VC building and locked it, said Fazlul Rahman, public relations deputy director of CUET.
The students blocked the Chattogram-Kaptai highway and burnt two buses of Shah Amanat Paribahan, he said.
The students reportedly did not leave the halls till filing of this report.
Students placed a nine-point demand, including payment of appropriate compensation to the victim students鈥� families by the bus company, Shah Amanat Paribahan, cancellation of all the local bus services, establishment of a modern medical centre on the CUET campus, construction of four-lane highway from Chattogram to Kaptai, increasing the number of traffic islands and ensuring all road safety and speed control measures.聽聽
Chattogram district superintendent of police SM Shafiuddin said that additional police forces from the Chattogram district and Raujan upazila were deployed on the university campus on Thursday afternoon.
They would observe the situation till Friday morning, he said, adding that if the bus owners of the burnt buses want to file case they would take the case.
On Monday, two civil engineering students of the CUET were killed in a road crash in Chattogram triggering their fellow students to launch the protest.
A student who was injured in the accident is out of danger now but still under observation at Evercare Hospital.
The police arrested the accused driver of the bus on Tuesday.
The bus, which killed two students, Shanto Saha, 21, and Towfiq Hossain, 20, did not have a fitness certificate, while dates of its other documents were expired.
