Shawdesh Desk:

An associate professor of Jahangirnagar University has resigned from his position protesting at ‘brutal attacks’ on students by the government.

Zahidul Karim, a teacher of the management studies department, submitted his resignation letter to the university vice-chancellor, Nurul Alam, on Thursday.

He is a researcher of Strategic Management, Human Resource Management, Entrepreneurship and International Business.

Confirming the resignation, JU registrar Abu Hasan said, ‘We have received the letter via email at about 10:30am on Thursday. We are working on the proceedings in this regard.’

According to the resignation letter, the teacher decided to put an end to his 14-year-long teaching career at the university to protest at killings and to awaken values and morals among the teachers of Bangladesh.

Expressing condolences over deaths of students, Zahidul Karim said, ‘I am deeply hurt by the government of Bangladesh’s indifference and the biased attitude of teachers towards the recent chaos and bloodshed across the country.’

‘Many ordinary students have lost their valuable lives due to the aggressive attitude of the government towards the movement of logical rights,’ he said.

He also argued in support of a prompt resolution to meet the students’ demand that could have saved a large number of lives.

‘The attacks carried out by activists of the ruling Awami League-backed Chhatra League along with the police, the Rapid Action Battalion and the Border Guard Bangladesh on ordinary students for more than a week have created a dark chapter for this nation,’ Zahidul Karim claimed.

He also compared the killing of common people as well as students of schools, colleges, universities and a number of protesting teachers with the brutalities during the War of Independence in 1971.

Terming the role of teachers ‘questionable’, he said, ‘I have seen university administrations and teachers remain indifferent to those murders.’

‘Due to the political alliance with the ruling party, the conscience of the teaching community has disappeared, and the teacher-student relationship worsened’, he added.

JU vice-chancellor Nurul Alam could not be reached for his comment despite repeated attempts over the phone.