Protests continued to grip Rabindra University on Thursday against a teacher who allegedly ordered a forcible haircut of 14 students who were about to sit for final examination.
Student protesters demanded that controversial teacher Farzana Yasmin Baten be permanently sacked from the university for humiliating their peers. Though she resigned as the chairman of Department of Cultural Heritage and Bangladesh Studies, assistant proctor, and a member of the proctorial board, the gestures did little to pacify the protesters.
Four students named Habib, Zahid, Sirat and Zakaria of Cultural Heritage and Bangladesh Study department, who went on a fast-unto-death hunger strike, fell sick on Thursday, the second day of their protest.
Among them, Habib was admitted to Shajadpur Upazila Health Complex while the rest were given first aid.
The outraged students kept the acting vice-chancellor, registrar and other teachers confined in the locked the academic and administrative buildings for the second day Thursday.
Student leaders Shamim Hossain, Abu Jafar Hossain and Nazmul Hasan told media that they will continue their protests until Farhana Yasmin is not permanently terminated.
University Treasurer Abdul Latif, now acting as VC, said that a syndicate meeting has been called for Thursday night to determine the fate of Farhana.
Earlier, the university authorities formed a five-member committee to probe the incident, said Abdul Latif.
According to some students of the department, Farhana asked the first-year students of the department to trim their hair. All but 14 students complied with her instruction.
On Sunday, while they were about to sit for their final exams, the teacher instructed an office assistant to trim the hair of the 16 students and he did it accordingly, the students alleged.
Protesting the incident, the students boycotted the examination held on Monday and the hair cutting incident went viral on social media following the protest.
The students also formed a human chain on the university’s temporary campus-1 in Shahzadpur Mohila Degree College area on Monday, where the teacher, who is also assistant proctor, showed up and allegedly threatened to get them failed in the exams if they don’t end the protest.
Meanwhile, Nazmul Hasan Tuhin, 25, a student of the department and a victim of the haircut scandal, found the humiliation too much to bear. He took sleeping pills in an attempted suicide, his friends said.
He is undergoing treatment at Enayetpur Khaza Yunus Ali Medical College and Hospital.
Source: United News of Bangladesh