Chattogram Correspondent

The ongoing road safety movement by Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (Cuet) students has been postponed following a bilateral meeting between the university administration and the students on Thursday night.

The vehicular movement on busy Chattogram-Rangamati’s Kaptai Road resumed around 11:30pm after the protesting students left it.

Moreover, the students decided to return to their academic activities deferring their movement.

In a statement signed by the university’s Registrar (additional duty) Prof Dr Sheikh Mohammad Humayun Kabir on Thursday night said that a decision will be made in the syndicate meeting to be held on Friday to reconsider the closure of academic activities.

However, the students will be allowed to stay in the dormitories till then, it read.

Earlier on Thursday afternoon, the Cuet was declared closed for an indefinite period as students burst into protests demanding road safety after the deaths of two fellows in a fatal road accident on April 22.

Besides, the male students were asked to vacate dormitories by 5pm on Thursday and the female students by 9am on Friday.

Two Cuet students—Shanto Saha, a 3rd year student and Tawfiq Hasan, a 2nd year student of Civil engineering department, died when a bus of ‘Shah Amanat’ paribahan hit a motorbike on Chattogram-Kaptai road at Zianagar in Rangunia upazila on Monday.

As soon as the news spread, some Cuet students vandalised three buses and set one more on fire on that day.

The students took to the streets boycotting classes and examinations and continued their protests till Wednesday blocking the Chattogram-Kaptai road by setting fire on logs and tyres to press home their 9 point demand for safe road.

They demanded arrest of the bus driver and his assistant and their exemplary punishment.

The other demands include providing compensation to the deceased and bearing the medical expenses of the student injured in the accident, establishment of modern treatment centre with all facilities on the campus, proving ambulances with modern equipment, stopping movement of all local buses including Shah Amanat and AB Travels on the road, examining liscences of the buses and CNG-run auto-rickshaws that ply the road , making the Student Welfare Council under accountable and forming students representative group.

Bus driver Md Tazul Islam was arrested from the Kotwali area of Chattogram city on Wednesday afternoon.