BANGLADESH: Government moves to quell campus violence

The newly installed Sheikh Hasina government has deployed the police to quell campus violence after Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists snapped telephone lines of the Chittagong University vice-chancellor's office and drove out the deputy registrar, according to Thandian News.


Educational institutions across Bangladesh, which are nerve centres of political activity, have witnessed fights between BCL cadres and those of the Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami. The latter had dominated the campus scene with the Jamaat in power between 2001 and 2006. The BCL is now challenging that dominance.

The Daily Star reported that four assistant proctors at the university submitted resignation letters on Tuesday to Vice-Chancellor Badiul Alam. This followed a request by the university authorities for the police and Rapid Action Battalion to raid all dormitories and two fraternity houses of the university on Monday night. The law enforcers could not find anything illegal in the dorms during a raid that ended early Tuesday.

Alam said the raid followed a directive from the government, and that university authorities would work to maintain congenial academic atmosphere at the university.
Full report on the Thandian News site