Education minister Dipu Moni called for talks once again with the demonstrating students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) to resolve the issue.
The minister came up with this appeal on Saturday evening while briefing the newsmen following the meeting with a delegation of SUST teachers in Dhaka.
"It is possible to solve all the problems through discussion. We are willing to sit down and discuss the issue," she said. The students told that they don't want to talk, it is not acceptable as discussion can resolve all the problems, she added.
She urged all to make scope for teachers so that they could reach the students who are on hunger strike on the university campus and see their (student's) conditions. She said if the teachers can reach the students then they will able to know what they want to say.
About Saturday’s discussion, she said: "... Our door is always open for discussion." She said a fair solution is needed for SUST issue and that's why all things have to be taken under consideration.
Replying to a query of a newsman, she said she couldn't go to Sylhet right now due to family related illness. However, if necessary, his representative can go there, she said, adding that if students want to sit for discussion or talk, the representative will go.
She said that the students had earlier agreed to have discussion with much enthusiasm but later they showed unwillingness.
The minister on Friday talked to the agitating students in an effort to resolve the issue. She talked to the students over the phone at around 3.10pm. She said that she wants a peaceful solution to the issue as soon as possible and is willing to discuss students directly if they want.
The students of SUST started agitation on 13 January to realise their 3-point demand including resignation of Begum Sirajunnesa Chowdhury Hall provost Zafrin Ahmed.
They alleged the teacher of misbehaviour. Activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League on 15 January attacked the demonstrators. Police attacked the students the following day after the students confined the VC in the ICT Building on the campus.
Following this, the authorities declared the university shut on the night and asked the students to vacate the residential halls. But the students defied the order and launched their one-point movement demanding the VC’s resignation.
Students in Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Khulna University and Barishal University demonstrated protesting the attacks on SUST students. Various citizen’s platform and political parties also criticised the attacks.
