By IPS Correspondents
DHAKA, May 27 1998 (IPS)

The crackle of gun fire has become quite common in Bangladesh’s politicised university campuses where clashing groups of students fight turf battles with unlicensed firearms.

Last month, Dhaka University was again paralysed by bloody violence that led to the death of a student leader — a final year journalism student — in an exchange of fire with a rival student organisation.

The slain student was from the youth wing of the ruling Awami League that has clashed repeatedly for control of Dhaka University with student supporters of the main opposition Bangladesh National Party.

His death raised the number of students killed in the country’s most prestigious university since 1971 to 62. The campus here has been overtaken by violence unleashed by hired criminals and armed students who have taken over control of the residential halls.

The university authorities plead helplessness since the student groups have influential political patrons. Successive governments have ignored calls by educationists, citizens and anxious parents to cleanse the campuses of violence.

But last month, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed assured Parliament on Apr. 28 that her government was prepared to take stern action against armed groups in universities if there was political consensus on the issue.

“My government is ready to order the police to shoot ‘terrorists’ at sight for freeing the educational institutions from terrorism,” she said.

But her statement provoked an angry outcry from political opponents. Deputy leader of the opposition Prof. Badruddoza Chowdhury accused the government of trying to silence the voices of the young, who led pro-democracy struggles in the past.

The ‘Workers Party’ of communists said it was political parties and not students who were responsible for the gun culture in universities. “They use students to consolidate power, supplying them with arms and money,” the party said.

The persistent warlike situation on campuses and clashes between the rival groups at frequent intervals have disrupted academic life in Bangladesh. Students are paying the price with university courses taking two and more years to complete.

“Only god knows where this kind of intolerant student politics will take the country,” said a frustrated parent about Dhaka University.

Playing the role of conscience keeper is the Bangladesh president, Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed who has been pleading for the urgent need to ban politics in campuses and delink student groups from political parties in the greater national interest.

Since he assumed office in October 1996, the president has been talking about the pernicious effects of violent student politics and urging the political leadership to restore peace on campuses.

“Armed young supporters of political parties have turned campuses into war fields … Students are being used as pawns of political parties and as result, we see arms in their hands instead of books,” he lamented.

His appeal was joined by Dr. Mohammad Farashuddin, vice- chancellor of the East-West private university in Dhaka who added that the campus reflected the vices like corruption, injustice, terrorism and malpractices that are polluting society.

However, student leaders are divided on predictable political lines. Those who support the ruling party like Ishaque Ali Khan Panna, president of its student wing, say they will back any measure taken to eliminate “terrorism” from the campus, but are strongly opposed to a ban on student politics.

His rival, Musharraf Hossain, vice-president of the opposition BNP student group, was dismissive of the government’s proposal, calling it a “political stunt” to mislead and confuse the people and “silence the opposition”.

Student politics was politicised in the late 1960s when Bangladesh was still part of Pakistan by then governor Monem Khan who doled out huge amounts of money to student leaders and gave them arms in return for their support.

In the years after the country’s independence, political parties have been harbouring student leaders to establish their domination in educational institutions. The Bangladesh National Party leader Nazmul Huda openly admitted in 1993 when his party

was in power that his party had armed the students to fight against martial law dictator Hussain Mohammed Ershad.

Student criminals have got away scot free. Though there have been at least 170 student deaths in campuses across the country, not one person has been imprisoned.

Just once in 1974, several student leaders were sentenced by a court for their involvement in killing seven students in a residential hall of Dhaka University, but they were set free by general-turned-president Zia-ur-Rahman when he took over after the assassination of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Rues a Supreme Court lawyer, in Bangladesh “student leaders play the game of the politicians, share their booties, use the arms funded and supplied by politicians themselves.”

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