Shawdesh Desk:

General students of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology on Wednesday boycotted their classes and staged sit-in in front of the vice-chancellor’s office protesting against the return of Chhatra League leader Ashiqul Islam Bitu to classes though he was expelled after murder of BUET student Abrar Fahad in 2019.

Bitu came to the campus and attended a class on August 6 and the general students began protest since the day demanding cancellation of Bitu’s academic registration, expelling him from the campus permanently and not allowing student politics on the campus, the agitating students said.

They termed Bitu a murderer and said that they would not share any class with a ‘murderer’ and, that is why, they began to boycott their classes.

They said that they would continue their demonstration until their demands were met.

Though Bitu was expelled from the university after Abrar Fahad murder, he was not convicted in the murder case, said officials.

The agitating student began their class boycott programme on Wednesday morning and started a sit-in in front of the vice-chancellor’s office from 10:00am.

They carried placards reading different slogans including ‘No campus sharing with a murderer’, ‘Expel Bitu for life’, ‘Abrar Bhai’s blood will not go in vain’.

Earlier, On May 22, 2021, Ashiqul Islam Bitu joined an online class of Chemical Engineering Department but he could not attend classes again due to students’ protests.

On December 8, 2021, the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 sentenced 20 students of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology to death and five others to life term imprisonment for the 2019 murder of their fellow Abrar Fahad at a hall over his Facebook post on Bangladesh-India deals.

All the 25 convicts were students of the university and leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the students’ associate organisation of the ruling Awami League.