Ex-SUST students ‘picked up’ by law enforcers for aiding protesters  

Law enforcers have allegedly picked up two former students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) for aiding the protesters demanding the resignation of Vice Chancellor (VC) Professor Farid Uddin Ahmed.

According to police sources, Reza Noor Muin of department of architecture and Habibur Rahman of department of computer science and engineering of SUST were nabbed from different parts of Uttara in Dhaka on Monday night by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

A team of Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP) is taking them to Sylhet. They will be shown arrested in case there, the sources added while seeking anonymity.

Meanwhile, speaking with The Business Standard, Shah Razi Siddiqui, local guardian and roommate of Habibur Rahman, said that the two were picked last night by men in plainclothes.

"They were driving a vehicle that had stickers of the CID on it. The plainclothesmen picked up Habibur and Muin citing the ongoing students' protests in Sylhet. 

"They said that the two were being nabbed for providing financial aid to the protesters. They left us a visiting card of Mahmudul Islam Talukder, additional superintendent of police at the Cyber Police Centre of CID, for further communication," Razi, also an ex-SUST student, added.

He said that recently Habibur recently got a job in a software farm of Germany and got his visa confirmed this week. 

Besides, despite repeated attempts, Muin's wife Jakowan Salwa Takrim could not be reached for comments.

TBS tried to contact officials of the CID regarding the issue but all of them refrained from making any statements. 

The protesting students of SUST recently sought donations from their former students to bear the expenses of their movements. 

On 13 January, a group of SUST resident students began demonstrating, alleging that their provost, Zafrin Ahmed Liza, misbehaved with a student who called her to report bad food and other issues.

On 16 January, police charged batons, lobbed tear shell canisters, fired rubber bullets and threw stan grenades on the agitating students that left over 30 pupils injured. The police action turned the student protest into an-anti VC one as protesters went on a fast-unto-death programme.

Education Minister Dipu Moni spoke with a delegation of the protestors in a video call on Saturday night for almost an hour. The students said that they would not break their fast until the VC resigned.

On Monday, the University Teachers Network observed a token hunger strike on Dhaka University (DU) campus to express solidarity with the SUST students. Many DU students also joined the protest expressing their solidarity.

At the programme, Jahangirnagar University teacher Prof Anu Muhammad said the SUST VC should resign immediately if he has minimum self-respect.  

"Though the students are staging the demonstration for saving the SUST, they are actually risking their lives for a greater movement meant for repairing and strengthening the battle for change at all public universities," commented Anu Muhammad.

On Monday evening, left-leaning student organisations brought out a torch procession on DU campus expressing solidarity with the ongoing SUST movement. Before that, they held a brief agitation rally in front of the National Museum at Shahbagh.