DUCSU vice-president Nurul Haq Nur was unwelcomed by demonstrators, protesting the death of a Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP), when he went to express his solidarity on Tuesday (Mar 19).
BUP student Abrar Ahmed Chowdhury was run over by a bus early morning near the Jamuna Future Park in Dhaka.
Soon after, his peers took to the streets in the area blocking traffic until evening when they announced to return the next day calling for a boycott of classes across educational institutions in the country.
Around 10am, Dhaka North Mayor Atiqul Islam went to the area, but the protesters refused to call off the demonstrations despite his request and assurances of meeting their demands.
Nur, who has been elected VP of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU), along with another leaders his panel of quota reformers, Rashed Khan, arrived at the scene of protest in the afternoon.
As Nur was about to address the demonstration in front of the media, a spokesperson for the protesters Mayesha Noor, stopped him and said “Nur we cannot accept you.”
She was backed by fellow demonstrators, who started to shout “Go away! Go away! Fake! Fake!” at the DUCSU leader.
Nur’s efforts to stop them went in vain when a group of demonstrators escorted him away from the scene of protests.
Soon after, speaking to media, Nur expressed his solidarity with the demonstrations.
“Dhaka University students stand by this protest for road safety,” he said before warning of plots to pass the blame of anarchy or violence on demonstrators.
“We have seen it during the quota reform protests when the VC residence was ransacked and efforts were on to blame the demonstrators. The same thing happened here; a bus was set on fire, but the students were not involved,” added the DUCSU VP.
Later while calling of the demonstration for the day, protesters’ spokesperson Mayesha told the media, “This is not a political demonstration. So we will not accept any political party or figure.”