DU CORRESPONDENT
The University Teachers' Network on Saturday held a protest rally at the foot of Dhaka University's (DU) Aparajeya Bangla monument demanding justice for the murders and violence on the hill tracts of Bangladesh and inside university campuses.
The group of academics living inside Bangladesh and abroad also urged against the ban of student politics.
Highlighting that political movements in the universities has led the way for the freedom of language, country's independence, and 2024's anti-discrimination movement, which overthrew an authoritarian government, the group said, "We cannot deny that politics."
They also questioned the usefulness of sport, culture, and philosophical practices in the universities in the absence of traditional politics.
Opining that murderers are "extremely mentally ill", Kamal Uddin, a professor at DU's Clinical Psychology, hinted to some of the recent killings and said the murders have been committed in a killing frenzy, which highlights the "distorted mentality" of the killers.
They have learned it from the university as they had to face a similar culture for the last several years, the professor said.
The authorities allegedly took no effective step to curb the ill practices in DU's guest room, which included the torture of ordinary students by leaders and activists of Chhatra League during the former government's rule.
Samina Lutfa, an associate professor of Sociology, said questions should be raised to find answers on why two people had been killed in Dhaka University and Jahangirnagar University when the institutions have been "declared free from all kinds of politics".
The DU administration must take responsibility for this, she said, adding, "What is the clear explanation of this?"
Some of the teachers have questioned the accuracy of labelling the rights activists in the country's hill tracts as "separatists".
The teachers' group expressed their disapproval of the response by the administrations of the institutions to the murders committed in the two universities.
They reminded the university administrations that they must perform their duties properly as they have been given a responsibility.
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