We are concerned at the way police on January 16, 2022 responded to the agitating students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) who had confined the vice-chancellor to press home their demands. Police reportedly charged batons on the students, fired rubber bullets and blasted sound grenades. At least 30 students were critically injured in the incident, along with a number of police personnel and two teachers.

According to media reports, students of Begum Sirajunnesa Chowdhury Hall started demonstrating on the campus on January 13 with their three-point demand: resignation of the hall provost; resolving alleged mismanagement of the dormitory, and bringing in a student-friendly provost committee. They met the VC on January 14 and gave a 24-hour ultimatum for the issues to be resolved. After the deadline of the ultimatum ended without their demands being met, they started their protest again. And, on January 16, as they confined the VC, police swooped on the students.

The question is, was there no other way to calm the troubled students without police attacking them? Why couldn't the authorities meet the students' demands before the situation took a turn for the worse? If their demands could be met or if their concerns could be quelled somehow, the current situation could have been easily avoided. Instead, what started as a protest has now turned into a movement for the VC's resignation.

Another question that must be asked here is: Why do our public university authorities always resort to shutting the campus down and vacating the dormitories to avoid resolving issues raised by students? On the other hand, is there no other way to hold a protest without confining a vice-chancellor, which happens quite frequently at our public universities? We think the SUST administration should have listened to the students' problems with sincerity and tried to solve them before things turned this bad. And, under no circumstances should the administration have directed the police to attack the students. Now that the university has been shut down indefinitely, it is the students who will be the ultimate sufferers, as they will lose precious time from their academic life already squeezed by Covid-imposed closures and complications.

It is good to know that the provost of Begum Sirajunnesa Chowdhury Hall has resigned from her post. Now the SUST administration should resolve the other problems raised by the students and reopen the university as soon as possible.