DU unrest
The days August 20-25 in 2007 are still afresh in our minds. The DU unrest arose from a trifling matter of watching a football match. Later on, it turned into campus violence following the beatings of DU students on the campus by the army personnel. As a result, thousands of DU students took to the street to protest it. They also demanded the withdrawal of the troops from the campus. This continued for a couple of days.
However, when the protest spread to other educational institutions, the then army backed CTG imposed curfew on divisional cities and closed the universities and colleges. During curfew they cracked down on general students and teachers. They even arrested five university teachers, 3 from DU and 2 from RU, for breaking the so-called Emergency Power Rules. Later, three teachers were sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment. On the same day the presidential clemency was awarded to the convicts and they were released.
I would like to thank the parliamentary committee on the education ministry for the decision to interview the affected students and teachers to know their version of the campus violence. The committee should reinvestigate the DU unrest so that such incidents are not repeated in future.
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