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Teachers and students held demonstrations at different universities across the country on Thursday demanding a fair share of water of the common rivers with India.

The demonstrations were held amid a serious deterioration in the flood situation in north-east districts due to the onrush of water from India.

On the Dhaka University campus, students under the Student Movement Against Discrimination platform protested against opening the gates of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura without any prior  warning or preparation during a relief collection programme at Teacher-Student Centre of the university, DU correspondent reported.

Criticising India for opening the gates of the dam without any prior warning or preparation, Hasnat Abdullah, a key coordinator of the platform, said that India’s current actions would determine the future of India-Bangladesh relations.

‘If you intentionally push us into a crisis, Bangladesh will take countermeasures,’ warned Hasnat.

Nusrat Tabassum, another coordinator of the platform, told journalists at the programme that people suffered for floods every year.

‘Sometimes it happens due to opening of dams,’ she added.

Teachers and students, meanwhile, demonstrated on the Jahangirnagar University campus protesting at the opening of the gates of the dam in Tripura by the Indian authorities triggering ‘flooding’ in Bangladesh’s vast areas, JU correspondent reported.

Terming the opening of sluice gates across Bangladesh-India border during favourable situation of India as an aggression policy, the demonstrators held India liable for the worsening flood situation in the country.

Under the banner of the Student Movement Against Discrimination, the demonstrators brought out a procession from the altar of the university’s central Shaheed Minar and held a rally in the Battola area.

Professor Jamal Uddin of the university’s environmental sciences department said, ‘The main rivers in Bangladesh lose water receptivity due to construction of Indian dams on almost every common river. Thus, an onrush of water from upstream in the rainy season causes floods.’

¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· staff correspondent in Rajshahi reported that several hundred students and teachers of various educational institutions blocked the Dhaka-Rajshahi highway in front Rajshahi University main gate demanding a fair share of the water agreement with India.

They also protested at opening the gates of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura.

Gholam Kibria Mohammad Meshkat Chowdhury, a coordinator of the Students Movement Against Discrimination, said, ‘India has deprived us of our right to the fair share of water. They constructed dams illegally on various rivers without any discussion with Bangladesh.’

He also warned the Indian government that people of Bangladesh would never be sold into slavery to India.

RU physics professor Saleh Hasan Naqib said that the ousted fascist government had turned Bangladesh into an unwritten colony of India.

‘Good relations should always be maintained with neighbouring countries. But that should be bilateral,’ said Naqib.

Criticising former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s relations with the Indian government, he said, ‘The Indian government has to understand whether they will be friends of Sheikh Hasina or whether the people of Bangladesh.’

Besides, students of Patuakhali Science and Technology University in Patuakhali, Bangamata Sheikh Fojilatunnesa Mujib Science and Technology University in Jamalpur and students under the Student Movement Against Discrimination platform in Bhola, among others, also held demonstrations demanding the fair share of water of the common rivers with India.

A greater part of Bangladesh including Feni, Cumilla, Noakhali has been inundated due to relentless rainfall and a rise in the water level of rivers following a onrush of water from upstream, leaving over 3.6 million people marooned.