Teachers from various public and private universities, including Dhaka University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Jahangirnagar University, and Rajshahi University, on Monday held rallies and processions expressing solidarity with the student protests.
They protested against the wholesale arrests, filing of cases, and attacks on students, demanding quota reforms in government jobs across the country.
At about 11:00am, a group of university teachers held a rally at the foot of the Aparajeyo Bangla sculpture of DU, protesting against the attacks, cases, and arrests of students involved in the quota reform movement, reported the 抖阴精品 correspondent at Dhaka University.
From the rally, the teachers demanded the release of the arrested students and the reopening of educational institutions as soon as possible.
Chairing the rally, JU professor Sayeed Ferdous said that the students had paved the way for writing a new history by challenging the continuous chaos in Bangladesh鈥檚 educational institutions and the state over the past five decades, as well as the systematic oppression carried out by ruling student organisations in the dormitories.
鈥榃e support all the demands of the protesting students,鈥� he said.
BUET professor Abdul Hasib Chowdhury, also former president of the BUET Teachers鈥� Association, stated that professor Shamsuzzaman was martyred in February 1969 while protecting the students.
鈥榃e, who have gathered here, are the successors of martyr Shamsuzzaman,鈥� he added.
Teachers from Khulna University, Jahangirnagar University, BRAC University, Stamford University, Green University, and State University also delivered speeches at the rally.
Before the rally, the teachers gathered at Shahbag and brought out a procession at the foot of the Aparajeyo Bangla. At the beginning of the programme, they observed one minute of silence in tribute to the killed students and other sections of people in the protest.
Hundreds of JU teachers and students demonstrated on the campus on Monday, protesting against the wholesale arrest of anti-quota protesters, including the coordinators of the protesting student platform, reported the university correspondent at 抖阴精品.
They also protested against the killings of students during anti-quota protests, which sparked a lethal police crackdown, and alleged picking up and intimidation by law enforcement agencies during the post-violence period of the movement.
They brought out a procession from the university鈥檚 central Shaheed Minar area on the campus at about 4:00pm.
They chanted slogans calling prime minister Sheikh Hasina an 鈥榓utocrat鈥�. Marching through the campus, they staged a rally on the Shaheed Minar premises.
Around 200 teachers and students of Rajshahi University staged demonstrations by blocking the Rajshahi-Dhaka highway in front of the university main entrance over their nine-point demand, including a fair investigation and justice into the killings of fellow protesters during the quota reform protests last week, reported the 抖阴精品 Staff Correspondent in Rajshahi.
Witnesses said that the students started to gather in front of the university main entrance at 11:30am and blocked the highway at 11:45pm to press home their demands.
Expressing solidarity with the students鈥� demands, several teachers of the university, including physics professor Saleh Hasan Naqib and Arabic professor Iftikharul Alam Masud, also joined the demonstration.
鈥榃hat happened in the past two weeks was brutal. We are standing here on the blood of our beloved students. The way people have been killed in cold blood, along with the anarchy that has started across the state, we are not only saddened by this but also very angry. Students are on the path to justice. They will always stand for justice. As a teacher, I am proud to see the courage and determination of the students.鈥� Said Saleh Hasan Naqib.
