DEATH OF SAU STUDENT Students continue protests in Sylhet, boycott class, exam

Sylhet Agricultural University students on Sunday continued protests in Sylhet city and announced boycott of academic activities for three days from Sunday protesting at killing of their fellow Md Wasim Afnan pushing off a bus by its staff on Saturday.
Moulvibazar additional superintendent of police Anwarul Haque said that the bus driver Jewel Ahmad, 26, was arrested at Central Bus Terminal in Sylhet city at about 11:00pm on Saturday and his assistant Mashuk Ali was arrested at Chhatak in Sunamganj on early Sunday.
Students said that Mashuk pushed Wasim off the bus and driver Jewel speeded up running the bus over Wasim leading him dead on the spot on Dhaka-Sylhet highway at Sherpur in Moulvibazar on Saturday. 
The protesting students announced boycott of academic activities after concluding a protest rally in Chowhatta crossing in Sylhet city at about 1:30pm. 
Their demands included filing a murder case for Wasim’s killing, beginning the trial process in three days and stopping movement of all unfit buses on roads and ensuring road safety across Bangladesh.
The protesting students chanted slogans for the demands blockading Chowhatta intersection that disrupted traffic movement in the city. 
Assured by the police administration and leaders of the ruling Awami League of realisation of the demands, the students withdrew the blockade announcing the boycott of academic activities, including classes and scheduled examinations until Tuesday.
AL leader former finance minister AMA Muhith on his way to Osmani International Airport from his Sylhet city house stopped by to express solidarity with the students’ demands at Chowhatta.
Sylhet Agricultural University student representative Moyzul Islam Rahat said they would continue peaceful programmes on the campus and would announce further course of action, if the demands were not meet by Tuesday. 
The university teachers, officials and employees also formed a human chain on the campus at about noon protesting at the killing of Wasim and demanding exemplary punishment for the bus driver and his assistant.
Saturday afternoon, the biotechnology and genetic engineering fourth year student Wasim and his 10 fellows went to Nabiganj upazila in Habiganj to attend a wedding ceremony.
They got on a Udar Parbahan bus from Auskandi Toll Plaza of Nabiganj to return to Sylhet. They asked the bus driver Jewel to drop them in Sherpur crossing as his assistant Mashuk demanded excessive fare. 
Wasim was behind all of his fellows when they were getting off the bus at Shepur after an altercation over bus fare. Mashuk suddenly pushed Wasim off the bus when driver Jewel speeded up crushing him under the rear wheel of the bus, leaving him dead on the spot, the victim’s classmates said. 
Washim’s relative Shihab Ahmed said that Wasim was buried at his ancestral graveyard at Rudragram of Nabiganj upazila in Habiganj after Zuhr prayers on Sunday after a namaz-e-janaza there.
‘Wasim’s father did not want to file any case in this regard,’ he said.
Earlier on Saturday night, Wasim’s body was handed over to his family without post-mortem examination following an appeal of his father Abu Zahed Mahbub, police officials said. 
Moulvibazar sadar police station officer-in-charge Sohel Ahmad said that police would file a case if the victim’s family did not agree to file any case.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net