Jahangirnagar University anti-rape protests continued on the campus for eight days in a row on Sunday, demanding highest punishment of the latest rape accused and eviction of the non-students from JU halls.

Protesters, including the teachers and students, under the banner of ‘Platform against Oppression’ brought out a torch procession from the university’s central Shaheed Minar on Sunday evening, vowing to continue the protest.

Marching the university streets, the protesters staged a sit-in in front of the vice chancellor Nurul Alam’s residence on the campus at about 7:30pm, chanting slogans in which they blamed the university administration for its alleged failure to drug syndicates on the campus.

They also protested at the university administration’s alleged inaction to oust the non-students from the JU halls, while their five-day ultimatum to do so expired on Saturday.

While addressing a rally in front of the vice chancellor residence, coordinator of the Platform against Oppression Professor Aniccha Parvin Jolly said, ‘The university administration is compelling the students to live in extremely congested rooms in the halls by not evicting the non-students.’

Referring to the long waiting trial of the murder of Tonu, a student who was found raped and killed inside the Cumilla cantonment on March 20, 2016, coordinator of Jahangirnagar cultural alliance Sohagi Samiha said, ‘The state itself patronising rape and violence against women by not bringing the accused to book.’

Meanwhile, vice president of the university’s teachers association Professor Sohel Ahmed, member of the university senate Professor Mohammad Kamrul Ahsan, Professor Mafruhi Satter, Professor Jamal Uddin, convener of university unit Bangladesh Chhatra Union Alif Mahmud, among others, spoke at the programme.

The protesters also demanded action against assistant professor Mahmudur Rahman Jony of the public health and informatics department at the university, who was accused of maintaining an intimate relationship with a student, promising her better marks in examinations.

Jony was a former president of the university unit Bangladesh Chhatra League and a former assistant proctor of the university.

At about 8:00pm, vice chancellor Nurul Alam met the protesters and told them that currently the student halls have no ‘ganoroom’, which is actually a dining hall or a recreational common room, but used by a large number of students for living in a crammed situation. 

‘Hall administration have successfully abolished ganoroom and ensured seat to every legal student,’ the vice chancellor said.

However, he did not comment on the university’s action to punish Mahmudur Rahman Jony.

Terming the vice chancellor’s claim as ‘eye-wash’, the protesters vowed to launch tougher movement if non-students are not compelled to leave the university halls immediately.

The sit-in ended about 8:30pm with a call to lay siege to the university administration building on Monday morning.

On February 3, university unit Bangladesh Chhatra League leader Mustafizur Rahman, a former student of the university, and his associates allegedly raped a woman on the campus, sparking fierce protests.

The court has sent all the six involved into the incident to jail.