The students who are in the process of admission to the proposed Dhaka Central University in the 2024-2025 academic session withdrew their indefinite hunger strike at about 8:00pm on Thursday, about 34 hours after they began it.
They began the strike at about 10:00am on Wednesday at the entrance of Dhaka College, demanding immediate completion of their admission and beginning of their classes.
They demanded that the authorities issue a notice by November 6 announcing that the rest of their admission process must begin on November 9.
The protesters also demanded that the notice must announce the exact date of the beginning of their classes.
One of the protesters, Abu Bakar Saddik, said in the evening that they withdrew their demonstration as the university administrator assured them of meeting their demands after a meeting with the education adviser on November 6.
Earlier in the afternoon, he said that their admission process was yet to be completed, though the time of admission for the next year, 2025-26, is knocking at the door.
Groups of students, including those from Dhaka College and Eden Mohila College, came and expressed solidarity with the protest on Wednesday and Thursday.
Two of the protesters were sent to hospital on Thursday as they fell sick during the hunger strike.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Dhaka College unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, Jatiya Chhatra Shakti, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front and Chhatra Odhikar Parishad came to the spot and expressed their solidarity with the protesters.
The protesters鈥� admission test was held in August and the authorities postponed the dates scheduled for completing their admission twice.
The authorities, for the last time, on October 26, shifted the dates of completing their admission to November 16鈥揇ecember 1.
Over 10,000 students were primarily admitted to the proposed university, according to the proposed university鈥檚 interim administration administrator Professor Elias, also the principal of Dhaka College.
The government is yet to finalise the ordinance of the proposed university.
On September 24, the government published a draft of the Dhaka Central University Ordinance 2025 to establish the university with seven government colleges amid student protests.
The seven colleges鈥擠haka College, Begum Badrunnesa Government Women鈥檚 College, Eden Mohila College, Government Bangla College, Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College, Government Titumir College and Kabi Nazrul Government College鈥攚ere affiliated to Dhaka University in 2017 before which they were under National University.
A section of teachers and students of the colleges in different groups, however, opposed the structure of the proposed university since the publication of the draft ordinance.
Another section of students staged demonstrations demanding the immediate issuance of the ordinance.
