Chittagong, Jan 12 (IANS) A shocking incident at Chittagong University has ignited widespread condemnation after Assistant Professor Hasan Muhammad Roman Shuvo was violently assaulted by a group of students led by Abdullah Al Noman, office secretary of the Chittagong University Central Students’ Union.
Video footage circulating on social media shows Noman and his associates dragging the teacher by the neck and forcing him into the proctor’s office.
The Daily Star reported that the attack was not an isolated scuffle but a deliberate act of public violence, raising serious questions about campus governance and the moral collapse of student leadership. What has alarmed observers most is the role of Noman himself. As an elected student leader, he was expected to prevent disorder, yet he spearheaded it.
Despite clear evidence, the university administration has taken no visible disciplinary action, a silence critics say is indefensible. Noman’s claim that he acted “protectively” because “some students wanted to beat him” has been dismissed as hollow.
The report further said that such statements only confirm the presence of a mob, with Noman at its front. His assertion that the teacher “was not harassed” has been widely ridiculed as an insult to common sense.
Universities are meant to uphold due process, not mob justice. The proctor has already confirmed that Shuvo faces multiple probes, but ongoing investigations cannot justify physical assault.
The newspaper said that taking the law into one’s own hands is pure lawlessness, especially in an academic setting.
The administration now faces uncomfortable questions: How could such violence occur in broad daylight during admission tests? Why was the teacher left unprotected? And why has no action been announced against Noman despite overwhelming video evidence? By remaining passive, the university risks normalising violence as a tool of campus politics.
The incident sends a chilling message to faculty, students, and incoming freshmen—that power, not principle, determines safety, and that elected positions can shield perpetrators from accountability.
Invoking the July Uprising to justify the assault has been condemned as a distortion of history, betraying the values of a movement rooted in resistance to oppression.
The newspaper said an urgent action is required. If violence led by student leaders goes unpunished, universities risk becoming arenas of fear rather than spaces of learning. How Chittagong University responds will determine whether it stands for justice or quietly submits to mob rule.
--IANS
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