The main gate of the university has become the main tool to collect any demands in the Islamic University (EB). Any sudden crisis, urgent need for a couple of buses, demand for trial of an incident or delay in departmental examination - the gates of the university are locked and hung on various pretexts. Students, job aspirants or officials from political organizations block the main gate when they need to collect their demands. This bad culture has been going on for more than two centuries. Being a transport-dependent campus, the teachers and students have to suffer.
According to campus sources, vehicles carrying teachers and students leave the campus in two shifts at 2 pm and 4 pm. Cars of any one shift are held up for hours for collection of claims. Due to the negligence of the authorities, it has sometimes been prolonged up to 6 hours. Whether the demands of the agitators were met or not, two thousand teachers-students and officials-employees who returned to their destinations 20-25 kilometers away after completing the whole day's class-examination suffered. There are instances of such suffering even when foreign guests come to the university at various times. Many of the students who incur monthly expenses due to tuition reported being in an embarrassing situation as they could not go to tuition on time. Teachers-students are embarrassed by repeating the same incident over and over again. They think that this method of taking hostages for hours is completely unreasonable.
It is known that the gates were blocked four times in eight weeks from September 22 to November 24 after the opening of the post-coup campus. Earlier, at least 12 times in the last one year and more than 100 times in the last five years, protests have taken place by blocking the main gate. According to the information, the students of Geography and Environment department protested by locking the main gate last November 24 demanding the name change of the department. Earlier on October 7, the students of the Department of Development Studies blocked the main gate demanding the release of a teacher. The next day, on October 8, the two parties involved in a fight over a trivial incident, demanding justice for each other, blocked the cars of the 2pm and 4pm shifts and blocked the main gate twice on the same day.
Besides, the students of the 2018-19 academic year of the Department of Islamic History and Culture locked the main gate due to the delay in taking the departmental examination on November 25 last year. On October 3, 2023, the accused's classmates protested the expulsion of five students for ragging, and on September 25, the students barricaded the gate demanding additional bus allocation for the afternoon trip. In the same year, students and job aspirants protested by locking the gates 6 times in 13 days from January 25 to February 6. Apart from this, the activists of the banned organization Chhatra League locked the gate several times raising various small demands including the treatment of the injured BCL worker and the repair of the damaged bike. Also, in the past, it has become a routine for the former Chhatra League leaders and activists to protest by locking the gates several times with the help of the administration officials when they get an opportunity to demand job and job permanence.
Mizanur Rahman, former president of teachers' association and professor of accountancy department, told Yugantar that students' logical demands should be reported to the concerned department. But no one has the right to trouble ordinary teachers-students, officials-employees like this. Everyone needs to be aware of this.
Former professor of economics. Mamunur Rahman told Jugantar, blocking the gate is inhumane. But the authorities do not accept the demands in the application. Blocking the gate sometimes leads to some demands. As a result, the agitators chose to block the gate as the only method.
Meanwhile, according to the resolution unanimously passed in the meeting of the teachers' association, even if it was decided that 'if the teachers' cars are stopped for no reason, the strike will be observed the next day', the teachers' leaders feel that this bad culture is not being stopped because it is not reflected. Due to the disagreement of the teachers, it is not possible to implement such a decision, said the president of the teachers' association, Professor Dr. Anwar Hossain.
In this regard, the University's transportation administrator Professor Dr. M. Ayakub Ali told Yugantar that this bad culture should be stopped at any cost. If the students become more tolerant and adopt a logical approach with respect for the law, this bad culture will be eliminated.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. Nakeeb Mohammad Nasrullah told Jugantar, I have asked the student advisor and proctorial body to work on its solution with the advice of all student organizations and students. We will get out of this culture. We are trying to go to every faculty and conduct counseling to change the mental state of the students. I will tell the teachers that the decision of the teachers' association should be implemented.
