DMP instructed not to remove JnU protesters forcefully: Adviser Mahfuj
His post came shortly after the protesters announced an indefinite sit-in at the capital’s Kakrail.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has been instructed not to take any forceful measures to remove protesters demanding full housing scholarships, full budget approval and implementation of the second campus project for Jagannath University (JnU), Information and Broadcasting Adviser Mahfuj Alam has said.
"The protesting students have appeared before the government with their just demands. The DMP commissioner has already been instructed not to resort to any attack or take any forceful measures to remove them," the adviser said in a Facebook post at 12:30am on Thursday (15 May).
His post came shortly after the protesters announced an indefinite sit-in at the capital's Kakrail.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
"We will not leave the place until our demands are met. We will stay here all night. If any harm comes to our students, the government will have to take responsibility for it," JnU student Shamsul Arefin, a representative of the All-Party Student Unity, announced from in front of Kakrail mosque around midnight (14 May).
He also extended an apology over the incident of a bottle being thrown at Adviser Mahfuj Alam while he was addressing the protesters earlier tonight.
"On behalf of the students, we express our regret that a bottle was thrown at the adviser. However, although we express our regret, the government will have to take responsibility for it," he said.
"All organisations are in agreement with our demands."
Meanwhile, Rois Uddin, general secretary of the Jagannath University Teachers' Association, also said, "We will remain on the streets until our demands are met."
He, too, expressed his regret on behalf of the teachers and students regarding the throwing of bottles at Adviser Mahfuj.
He said, "It was not our students who threw bottles. Someone who opposes the protest did it to sabotage the movement. The administration should investigate this and find out [the culprit] and give appropriate punishment."
Earlier tonight, Adviser Mahfuj cancelled an address to protesters midway after a water bottle was thrown at him during at Kakrail tonight.
Mahfuj announced that he will not hold the briefing after the incident, our correspondent reports from the spot.
One of the teachers present there claimed the bottle was thrown by an outsider and not a student of the JnU. However, it could not be immediately confirmed who threw the bottle.
