11 including CUET VC remain confined for 24 hours as protesters deliver breakfast

Eleven people, including newly appointed Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Sheikh Shariful Alam, have remained confined inside Administrative Building-2 for nearly 24 hours. On Tuesday (October 13), protesting students delivered breakfast to them inside the building at around 11am.

The protesters locked the building’s inner gate at around 12:30pm on Monday after the vice-chancellor failed to leave by the deadline set by students. They also disconnected the building’s electricity supply and chanted slogans, including “Lock it, lock it, lock it, the VC building will be locked” and “Reject, reject, reject the online VC.”

Ijaz Mahmud Khan, a fourth-year student of the Department of Civil Engineering, said the newly appointed vice-chancellor would remain confined until he resigned. He said the students had given the vice-chancellor sufficient time to leave the building, but he had chosen to remain there. The protesters had delivered breakfast to everyone confined inside, he added.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday morning, Professor Sheikh Shariful Alam said they were in a “very inhumane situation” and had sought assistance from the administration. How the administration would provide that assistance was up to them, he said.

On Monday morning (October 12), Professor Shariful Alam broke the lock on the vice-chancellor’s building and entered the campus. Around noon, the protesting students gave him a deadline to leave the building. When he failed to leave within the stipulated time, they confined him and the others inside.