Bangladesh RMG owners asked to settle payment before Eid

The Bangladesh government on Tuesday instructed all concerned in the readymade garment factories to ensure that workers get their due wages and festival allowances before Eid-ul-Fitr next month.

The Cabinet committee on law and order at its 11th meeting at the secretariat, with home affairs minister Sahara Khatun in the chair, issued the directives to prevent any disorder in the export-oriented apparel sector. 

‘We have directed law enforcement agencies, including the industrial police, to take effective measures to check any disorder in the RMG sector ahead of Eid,’ Sahara told reporters after the meeting.

She said that the lawmen were especially asked to take additional measures so that the law and order situation does not deteriorate in the ongoing month of Ramadan. 

The home affairs ministry will again sit with the representatives of the RMG factories tomorrow (Thursday) to press for implementation of the directives of the Cabinet body in the wake of the ongoing labour unrest in Ashulia, the industrial belt on the outskirts of Dhaka city, over non-payment of wages and job insecurity. 

The meeting also decided to launch a crackdown against food adulteration across the country in the wake of widespread use of chemicals including formalin and carbide, especially in fruits, vegetables and fish. 

Law minister Shafique Ahmed, labour and expatriates’ affairs minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, information minister Abul Kalam Azad, state minister for home affairs Shamsul Haque and senior officials of law enforcement agencies, along with others, were present at the meeting. 

‘We have directed the LGRD and cooperatives ministry and city corporations to begin combing operations against the use of injurious chemicals in food items,’ said Shamsul Haque.

He said that the government was thinking of 

enacting a stern law to stop food adulteration which causes deadly diseases like cancer. 

The state minister said the meeting asked the RMG factory owners to ensure payment of due wages and festival allowances to workers to forestall any labour unrest over non-payment of wages before the Eid. 

‘No one will be allowed to create an anarchic situation ahead of Eid in the readymade garment sector. The owners will have to pay due wages and festival bonus before the Eid,’ said Shamsul. 

The Cabinet body asked the two city corporations of Dhaka to ensure alternative passages while constructing any flyovers as areas like Jatrabari and Saidabad were facing huge traffic congestion due to narrow roads in the under-construction flyover area on one of the exits of the capital.

It asked the concerned authorities to strengthen the operation of mobile courts against food adulteration and other crimes. 

‘The local administrations and police have been alerted against the possibility of deterioration in the law and order situation over shortage of gas and electricity in and around the city,’ a senior official told New Age. 

The Cabinet body underlined the need for another meeting with representatives of the export-oriented RMG sector, which earns over $20 billion in foreign exchange a year, to ensure the workers’ rights and maintain order in the sector which has around 40 lakh employees, most of them women. 

Several hundred workers of Fashion It garment factory at Jamgora in Ashulia demonstrated for the third consecutive day on Tuesday in protest against the termination of the jobs of their fellow workers.

At least five were injured when the agitated workers, who brought out a rally blocking the Dhaka-Tangail highway, were lathi-charged by the police.

Around 70 people, including policemen and factory security guards, were injured in clashes at Jamgora and Dhonaid in Ashulia on Monday morning when workers of garment factories clashed with the police.

In response to workers’ unrest, the management of five garment and sweater factories declared holiday for the day and the management of another factory declared lock-out for an indefinite period.  

CID, SB deny having detained Ilias Ali

Only two, out of 10 government agencies, responded on Sunday to a High Court order asking them to explain before April 29 why the ‘detenu’, M Ilias Ali, a former lawmaker, should not be brought before it to establish that he was not being held illegally, said a law officer. On April 19, the bench of Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif, after hearing a writ petition filed by Ilias’s wife Tahsina Rushdir Luna seeking its direction to find out her husband, asked the home secretary, inspector general of police, additional inspector generals of Criminal Investigation Department and Special Branch, Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, Dhaka deputy commissioner, Rapid Action Battalion’s director-general, Detective Branch’s deputy commissioner and officers-in-charge of Gulshan and Banani police stations to answer the rule. The CID and the SB submitted separate reports to the government’s solicitor wing at the Attorney General’s office in the afternoon explaining that they had not arrested Ilias Ali, who remained missing since April 17. ‘The CID did not arrest Ilias Ali in any case on his way home at 1:30am on April 18 or torture him in a secret place,’ said additional inspector general of police (CID) Rownakul Hoque Chowdhury in reply to the allegations made in the writ petition. ‘The Special Branch or its representatives did not arrest the petitioner’s husband, even the matter is not in my knowledge,’ said additional inspector general of police (Special Branch) M Jabed Patwari, in his report. It said that since the SB had not detained Ilias Ali, the question of his being harassed by the agency did not arise. ‘The home secretary and the Rapid Action Battalion asked me to seek time, on their behalf, to submit their replies,’ the government law officer concerned, Motaher Hossain Sazu told New Age. He also said six other respondents were yet to file their replies although the High Court’s 10-day deadline to do so ended on Sunday. ‘I will submit the replies of the CID and SB to the bench concerned when the court resumes after the hartal is over,’ the law officer added. Home ministry’s joint secretary Shawkat Mostafa told New Age that the ministry had received the High Court order on April 24, and asked the police and the RAB to submit their replies. ‘We need time to prepare the replies,’ said the joint secretary. Ilias Ali, BNP’s organising secretary for Sylhet division, and his driver went missing on April 17. BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia alleged that the government agency and RAB picked up Ilias. But prime minister Sheikh Hasina dismissed the allegation saying that the BNP was staging a ‘drama’ over the Ilias issue. On April 18, police found Ilias’s car abandoned near his Banani residence in the capital and the BNP enforced dawn-to-dusk hartals for three consecutive days on April 22, 23 and 24 demanding that the party leader be returned immediately. After wrapping up their third day’s hartal on April 24, Khaleda Zia gave the government four days to find out the missing BNP leader and the deadline expired on Saturday. The main opposition is enforcing fresh two-day back-to-back shutdowns that began on Sunday after its ultimatum was over. The BNP also staged nationwide demonstrations on Thursday and Saturday to press home its demands for ‘returning’ Ilias Ali. 

 Source: New Age

BUET teachers think of alternative movement

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology teachers, on strike for 22nd consecutive days on Sunday, told New Age that they would not call off their protests seeking resignation of the vice-chancellor and the pro-vice-chancellor although they knew that students were suffering as no classes were being held. ‘The students will not face trouble as we can take make-up classes at the weekends or during holidays,’ The BUET Teachers’ Association general secretary, Md Ashraful Islam, said. He said, ‘We expect that the prime minister will meet our demands so that the students do not suffer.’ The striking teachers are discussing the campus situation with higher authorities. A number of teachers also said that they were thinking of ‘an alternative movement’ against the corruption in the university administration in view of sufferings of the students. But they would not call off their protests pushing for the resignation of the vice-chancellor SM Nazrul Islam and the pro-vice-chancellor Md Habibur Rahman because of their ‘involvement in corruption,’ the teachers said. ‘We have not yet decided our next course of action but have thought of an alternative way to push four our demands,’ one of the striking teachers said. He talked of the silent procession they held on the campus on Saturday as a way of protests. Asked about the sufferings of the students, the teachers said that the students were not suffering so much as their strike coincided with the general strike the opposition alliance was enforcing and because of public holidays. The vice-chancellor, meanwhile, told New Age that the teachers had alleged irregularities in administration. ‘But why should the students suffer?’ Asked about the allegations levelled against them the vice-chancellor said that the allegations were ‘illogical and baseless.’ ‘I have not committed any mistake. My resignation will, rather, be a mistake,’’ he added. 

Source: New Age

Appointment of BERC member: Imam places candidate on political grounds

Prime Minister’s adviser HT Imam recently asked the energy ministry to appoint a civil engineer as member of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission though he is not eligible for the position. In an official letter dated April 18, he told the state minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Mohammad Enamul Huq that the prime minister gave ‘her kind instruction’ to appoint Mohammad Shahadat Hossain as a member of the BERC. The PM’s adviser on public administration affairs attached three-page curriculum vitae of Mohammad Shahadat Hossain with his letter. He asked the state minister to place the matter before the prime minister in an official ‘summery’ on urgent basis. He gave a copy of the letter to the senior secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration. The PM is in charge of the energy ministry. The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Act 2003, amended in 2010, set the academic qualification of BERC member as graduation in Mine and Mineral Resources or electrical engineering or chemical engineering or mechanical engineering or petroleum engineering. According to the criterion set Master’s degree holders in geography, geology and mining, law, economics, accounting, business administration, management, finance, banking, marketing, public administration, chemistry, physics or applied physics are also eligible. Civil engineers are in no way eligible for the position. According to the BERC Act a candidate is required to have at least 15 years’ experience in any of the specified fields. Asked why he recommended a civil engineer for the position HT Imam told New Age on Sunday, ‘I forwarded the letter as I have received. The concerned authority would take the decision whether he is qualified or not.’ Imam said that the concerned authority was not bound to follow his recommendation. Shahadat took retirement after serving Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited for 26 years. He wrote in his CV that he took retirement as deputy general manager in February 2011. During his service, he mentioned, he took part in different training programmes related to gas transmission and distribution. Officials said that Shahadat does not in any way qualify for the position of member of BERC. They said that Shahadat’s ‘main qualification’ is his links. Shahadat also mentioned in his CV that he was the vice-president of Bangabandhu Prakoushali Parisad and always worked to organise engineers, who are followers of Bangabandhu in the Institution of Engineers of Bangladesh. He also mentioned that he met Sheikh Hasina several times after her home coming in 1981. Shahadat also mentioned in his CV that he actively took part n different political programmes of Awami League and its front organisations during his service life. BERC is a statutory body, not a political organisation, said officials. Asked whether a BERC member candidate needed political experience, HT Imam said that he was not aware of what Shahadat had attached with his CV. Short listing Shahadat’s name as a candidate member of BERC took e place at a time when the energy regulatory commission is facing allegations of taking politically motivated decisions. An Energy Division official said that a committee was working on the appointment of the energy commission members and prepared a short list among the applicants for the posts. 

Source: New Age

Students join striking teachers at Jahangirnagar University

Several hundred Jahangirnagar University students joined the movement of teachers who laid siege to the the vice-chancellor’s house for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday demanding his resignation. They rallied on the campus in protest at Saturday’s attack on the campus-based cultural activists and teachers by Chhatra League activists and burnt the vice-chancellor Shariff Enamul Kabir in effigy. The striking teachers, mostly belonging to opposition and left-leaning political parties, on Sunday vowed to continue with their sit-in until the vice-chancellor resigned. They were demanding the resignation of the vice-chancellor for his alleged corruption, recruitment of teachers on political grounds and patronisation of Chhatra League activists. The vice-chancellor, however, on Sunday told reporters that he would not step down. ‘There is no reason for me to resign.’ BCL activists backed by the vice-chancellor also brought out a procession on the campus. Sources said the BCL leaders forced general students to join the procession. Mehedi Hasan, a resident of Shaheed Salam Barkat Hall, said that Chhatra League activists had called general students to the common room of the hall and forced the students to join the procession. Activists of the Awami League-backed Chhatra League on Saturday night attacked the striking teachers and cultural activists. The teachers and students demanded exemplary punishment of the people who attacked them. Sangskritik Jote activists said that the police refused to record any case against Chhatra League activists who attacked on the cultural activists on Saturday in which at least 15 were injured. The Ashulia police officer-in-charge, Badrul Alam, said that some students had gone to the police station to file a case but the police did not record the case as the documents lacked some bits of information. The police recorded a general diary instead. The university authorities set up a three-member committee, headed by Pritilata Hall provost Lutfar Rahman, to investigate the attack, the registrar, Abu Bakar Siddique, said. The other two on the committee Ahmed Reza and deputy registrar Mohammad Ali. The committee has been asked to submit the report in seven working days. Cultural activists alleged that they had not stayed in the halls since Saturday night. ‘We have been forced to stay out of the halls in fear of attacks by Chhatra League activists as we are protesting at their activities that have led to the current campus situation,’ cultural activists Rahul Anzum said. Chhatra League activists, however, brushed aside the allegations and said that they had not asked anyone to leave the halls. The acting proctor Sukalyan Kumar Kundu assured the cultural activists of security in halls after discussing the matter with the provosts and Chhatra League activists. Police deployment on the campus has been reinforced to head off any trouble, the Ashulia police said. 

Source: New Age 

Sporadic clashes mark Bangladesh general strike

Sporadic clashes between pickets and police, attacks on vehicles, arrest of opposition activists and anti-hartal demonstrations by ruling party men marked the first day of the BNP-led alliance’s fresh back-to-back shutdowns in Bangladesh on Sunday. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led 18-party alliance enforced the nationwide dawn-to-dusk strike after its deadline to produce the missing BNP organising secretary, M Ilias Ali, was over on Saturday.

Dhaka to pressure Delhi to end border killing

From New Age
Dhaka is expected to lodge a strong protest against the killing and torture of Bangladeshis by India’s Border Security Force in the two-day home ministers’ talks scheduled for February 24–25 in New Delhi.
The home minister, Sahara Khatun, is scheduled to leave Dhaka for Delhi on February 23 leading a 12-member delegation to the bilateral talks with her counterpart P Chidambaram on issues relating to, among others, border management, security cooperation and implementation of the land boundary protocol, a senior official said.

Bangla Academy Literary Award announced

From New Age
Bangla Academy, the organiser of month-long Amar Ekushey Book Fair, on Saturday announced Bangla Academy Literary Award 2011 at the fair ground.
tor general, Shamsuzzaman Khan, at a discussion and cultural session on the academy premises in the afternoon announced the name of ten authors who won the award.

Amal Sen’s 9th death anniv observed

From New Age
The ninth anniversary of death of the legendary figure in the communist movement in the Indian subcontinent Amal Sen was observed on Monday through a commemorative ceremony held at the Workers Party of Bangladesh office in the capital.

The programme organised by the Amal Sen Smriti Rakkha Committee started with placing of wreaths at a portrait of the revolutionary communist icon, who was the founding president of the WP.

‘It’s a duty of all to show due respect to the late Comrade Amal Sen,’ WP president Rashed Khan Menon said.

WP general secretary Anisur Rahman Mollick and politbureau members Nurul Hasan Selim, Communist Party of Bangladesh president Manzurul Ahsan Khan and general secretary Muzahidul Islam Selim, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal secretary Sharif Nurul Ambia and assistant secretary Shirin Akhter, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal general secretary Khaliquzzaman, Gonotantrik Party secretary Nurul Rahman Selim, 11-party alliance convener Mahmudur Rahman Babu, Gano Forum leader Pankaj Bhattacharya, and Sramik Karmachari Oikko Parishad coordinator Wazedul Islam, among others, were in the ceremony.

A two-day fair will also start in Bakri of Narail on Tuesday to commemorate Amal. The fair will feature programmes including placing of wreaths at the place of Amal Sen’s cremation, a discussion, a rally, and cultural shows.

After the

formation of a unified Workers’ Party of Bangladesh, he was elected president of it in 1992 and again in 1995, and had held this post till 2000. He then

served as a WP central committee member until his death on January 17, 2002.

Dhaka stocks plunge sparks fresh protests

From New Age
The massive fall in share prices on the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Monday triggered fresh street demonstrations by the aggrieved investors in demand of a clear government policy for stabilising the capital market.

DGEN, the benchmark general index of the DSE, lost 3.33 per cent, or 167.68 points, on the day to close at 4,864.30 points. The DGEN slipped by 358 points in the past three days.

Agitated investors staged rowdy demonstrations in front of the DSE building at Motijheel keeping the traffic from Shapla square to Ittefaq crossing at a standstill from 12:20pm to 3:30pm.

Trading at the bourse started in a negative mood on the day with the DGEN losing around 125 points in the first five minutes. The index had fluctuated heavily throughout the session before closing below the psychological benchmark of 5,000 points.

Investors rushed out of different brokerage houses on the street at around 12:20pm and formed a human chain in front of the entrance to the DSE.

They set piles of wooden materials and paper on fire

and chanted slogans against National Board of Revenue chairman Nasiruddin Ahmed, finance minister AMA Muhith, Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman, and DSE president Shakil Rizvi for their failure to bring back stability to the market which had been passing through a depression for more than long one year.

The demonstrating investors demanded withdrawal of the latest NBR order banning investment of money earned in criminal ways in the securities market.

The statutory regulatory order of the revenue board said if the money was earned through criminal acts outlined in other laws then that fund would not be accorded the same privilege as that of undisclosed money.

Earlier in the budget session, the government allowed investment of undisclosed money in stocks without raising any question, subject to payment of a 10 per cent tax.

The NBR on several occasions said the provision would not be changed before the next national budget.

From the demo, investors also demanded stable government policies for stabilising the market. ‘When government policies regarding the equities market are not stable then how will those stabilise the market,’ an investor named Hamid asked.

‘The government is always coming up with short-term solutions for the market while prescribing us to go for long-term investment. This is really ridicules,’ he said.

To a question about the recent market downtrend and investors’ allegations, DSE senior vice president Ahasanul Islam first called on the investors to remain calm and act rationally. He then said, ‘The market is very sensitive and investors are reacting in a mercurial pace to its every change.’

He said the recent market downtrend was a cumulative effect of a number of issues.

‘The margin loan problem is still haunting the market and the lack of institutional participation has been intensifying it,’ he said.

He also said that ‘Rather than going for selling shares at a loss, investors should wait for corporate disclosures due to come out soon.’

The benchmark general index of the country’s premier bourse had slid 37 per cent over 2011 in a worst-ever crash that wiped out investments made by many thousands.

The DGEN which had stood at 8,290.41 points on December 31, 2010, closed on Thursday, the last trading day of the year, at 5,257.60 points, posting a lose of 3,032 points over the last calendar year.

Lack of coordination between the regulatory authorities and other stakeholders also made the measures taken by the government to rejuvenate the country’s ailing capital market ineffective. And so, the Dhaka stocks continued to fall like a stone from miles high in a hopeless, helpless state.

Public servants to be barred from stocks investment

From New Age
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Monday asked the authorities concerned to issue an official order reminding the public servants, including members of the armed forces, that they could not invest in any profitable business, including in share market.

The prime minister, while presiding over the weekly meeting of the cabinet at the secretariat, said the government officials and employees as per the service conduct rules could not engage themselves in the capital market, which fluctuates frequently, or any other profitable business, a cabinet member told New Age.

The minister said that Sheikh Hasina had asked the authorities to strictly implement the service rules in this regard.

The order came amid widespread allegations that a large number of public servants, including military officers, had made huge investments in the share market in violation of their service conduct rules. It has been alleged that many such officers and employees remain busy monitoring the capital market online and trading even in office hours.

The cabinet approved the draft amendments to the income tax law, proposing tax waiver for foreign investors and mutual fund income and reduction of tax on brokerage commission to boost the stock market, facing a serious crisis for continuous depression for last one year.

‘No government servant shall speculate in investments. For the purpose of this sub-rule the habitual purchase and sale of securities of notoriously fluctuating value shall be deemed to be speculation in investments,’ reads Section 15 of the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules 1979.

It says that no government servant shall make any investment the value of which is likely to be affected by some events of which information is available to him as a government servant and is not equally available to the general public.

‘The authorities have been asked to issue a circular ordering that no public servant either in civil service or in military can invest in any profitable business like share market which fluctuates frequently,’ the prime minister’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told reporters after the meeting at the secretariat.

He said that the official order would be made available soon with immediate effect.

The amendments of the tax law proposed reduction in tax at source on brokerage commission from 0.10 per cent to 0.05 per cent and waiving 10 per cent tax on mutual fund income to boost up the crisis-ridden stock market, the press secretary added..

The government imposed tax on foreigners’ investment in the capital market during the 2011-12 fiscal budget, but such investment was free of taxes before the current fiscal.

Short-sighted and uncoordinated regulatory policies reportedly helped create the stocks bubble and its riotous burst that had remained in the centre of the government’s economic mismanagement throughout past three years.

Sudden investment inflows, mostly from the banking sector, gave rise to a boom in 2010. Experts said use of funds by the alleged ‘market cartels’ had played a key role in generating a monstrous bull run, the price of which had to be paid later by the retail investors.

Since the beginning of 2011 to its last trading day on December 29, the general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange dropped by 37 per cent of its value losing 3,032 points.

ACC approves charges against Khaleda

From New Age
The Anti-Corruption Commission on Monday pressed graft charges against Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia and three others for using undisclosed money in buying land for a charity named after the late president, Ziaur Rahman.

The investigation officer of the case, Harunur Rashid, submitted the charge sheet to the General Registration Officer of the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court after the commission had approved it in the morning.

The court officials said the charge sheet would be placed before the CMM, AKM Enamul Haque, today for his signature, from where it would be transferred to the senior special judge Mohammad Zohurul Haque for further proceedings.

Khaleda’s lawyer Sanaullah Miah told New Age, ‘The ACC pressed the charge against the leader of the opposition in a bid to harass her politically.’

The ACC has no authority to interfere in the affairs of the private trust, he added.

Khaleda, who had obtained an eight-week bail from the High Court in the case, on December 8, 2012, would go to the CMM court around noon today to furnish her bail bond, the lawyer said.

Charges were also pressed against Haris Chowdhury, political secretary to the then prime minister Khaleda Zia, Ziaul Islam (Munna), former assistant private secretary to Haris, and Manirul Islam Khan, former assistant private secretary to former Dhaka mayor Sadeq Hossain Khoka for helping Khaleda in committing the offence.

Charges were pressed against Khaleda, now leader of the opposition, for committing the offence under Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947.

According to the law, the offence is non-bailable, and if the charge is proved, Khaleda may be sentenced to seven years in jail.

The three other accused may also be handed similar punishment for helping her in committing the offence.

The commission made the decision to submit the charge sheet in the case after examining the evidence and documents found during investigation, anti-corruption commissioner Muhammad Sahabuddin told New Age.

Thirty-six people were named as prosecution witnesses in the case, he said.

Harris Chowdhury is on the run while Khaleda and the two others are now on bail, the charge sheet said.

The Shaheed Zia Charitable Trust case was also the first case filed against Khaleda since the Awami League-led alliance assumed office on January 6, 2009.

Harunur Rashid, also assistant director of the commission, lodged the case with the Tejgaon police station on August 8, 2011 against Khaleda and the three.

According to the charge sheet, Khaleda, the then prime minister, had committed criminal misconduct by abusing her power in creating the trust as well as accumulating money from undisclosed sources and buying the piece of land at Kakrail in the city for the trust in 2005.

It also said that an account in the name of Shaheed Zia Charitable Trust had been opened with the Prime Minister’s Office branch of the Sonali Bank on January 9, 2005.

Around Tk 78.9 million was deposited in the bank account after a week. The BNP deposited Tk 61.9 million, Metro Makers Developers Ltd Tk 13.5 million and Ziaul Islam Tk 2.7 million, the charge sheet said.

It further said that the piece of land was bought on January 19, 2005 for Tk 65.2 million. But the seller, Suraiya Khanam, received Tk 12.5 million in addition to the amount the land was bought for.

The additional amount of money in the seller’s bank account came from the trust and the trust failed to show any valid source of the money, said the charge sheet.

It also said that Khaleda had not replied to any of the four letters the commission issued asking her to make a statement on the allegations.

Although the trust was set up in the name of charity, no charitable activities had ever been done by it, the charge sheet alleged.

The case was filed although the commission was yet to reply to a rule issued by the High Court on May 24, 2010 asking it to explain why its notice asking Khaleda to make a statement in connection with the probe into the alleged charity fund graft should not be declared illegal.

This is the second case, in which charges have been pressed against Khaleda since assumption of power by the Awami League.

On August 5, 2009 the corruption watchdog also pressed charges against Khaleda, Tarique and four others for embezzling Tk 2.1 crore from the Zia Orphanage Trust’s fund between June 1991 and February 2007.

Harunur Rashid, who filed the Zia Orphanage Trust case on July 3, 2008 during the rule of the military-controlled interim government, had submitted the charge sheet.

Khaleda is also facing at least three more cases on graft charges – GATCO graft case, Niko graft case and Barapukuria graft case.

JU proctor quits as protests on

From New Age
The proctor of Jahangirnagar University, Arju Miah, on Monday resigned his position in the face continued teacher-student protests since a student was tortured to death by activists of Chhatra League on January 9.

The protesters described the proctor’s resignation as their partial victory and said they would continue the movement until all of their demands was met. They warned that they would wage a movement for resignation of vice-chancellor Shariff Enamul Kabir if he failed meet the demands.

Arju Miah announced his resignation at a press conference about 12:30pm in the senate hall saying that he had made the decision for the sake of ‘peaceful academic atmosphere on the campus’.

A media release issued by the university’s public relations office said, ‘Professor Dr Mohammad Arju Miah has willingly stepped down from the proctor’s post, considering the situation that arose after the death of Zubair Ahmed, a fourth-year student of English department.’

He turned in his resignation to allow the university’s ‘regular activities to continue’, read the release.

Despite leaving the position of the proctor, Arju still retains the posts of the provost of Shaheed Rafique-Zabbar Hall and president of the university shop owners’ association.

The teachers protesting under the banner of ‘Shikkhak Samaj’ said they would resume their academic and administrative activities today as the proctor had been removed but they stuck to their remaining demands, including ‘punishment’ of Arju Miah as per the university’s ‘efficiency and discipline’ rules for assaulting the president of the university teachers’ association, AA Mamun.

Nasim Akhtar Hossain, a professor of government and politics, told New Age, ‘We will join work tomorrow [Tuesday] but our movement would continue until all our demands are met. If the vice-chancellor fails to accept the demands, we would have no option but to wage a movement [for his resignation].’

‘Our demands have been fulfilled partially. Our key demands, the resignation of the entire proctorial body, expulsion of all people involved in Zubair killing, security of all students and teachers and proper academic atmosphere,’ she said.

After the proctor’s resignation, the students under the banner of ‘Jahangirnagar against terrorism’ announced that they would continue their protests until all their demands were met.

Amid continued protests, the university authorities have expelled three students for their involvement in torturing Zubair to death and police arrested four students. A security officer was also sacked after the killing.

The students and teachers are demanding a judicial investigation of the killing of Zubair Ahmed, a fourth-year English department student who was tortured to death on January 9 by a faction of Chhatra League said to be loyal to the vice-chancellor.

They accused the vice-chancellor of harbouring hooligans and warned him of movement for his removal if he failed to meet the demands.