Protesting students at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) have padlocked an administrative building with newly appointed Vice-Chancellor Prof Sk Shariful Alam inside, hours after he entered his office despite an ongoing campus shutdown.
The students, who have been demanding the reinstatement of former vice-chancellor Prof Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem, locked the building's entrance around 12:30pm on Monday after Shariful failed to comply with their ultimatum to leave by noon.
Shariful had arrived on campus around 8:30am, weeks after his appointment, and entered the building that students had kept locked since Sept 21.
After learning of his arrival, protesters began gathering outside the building around 9:30am and demanded that he leave.
When he remained inside past the deadline, they padlocked the entrance.
Shariful and several leaders of the CUET unit of Jatiotabadi Chhatra Dal were inside the building at the time.
The protesters gathered outside and chanted slogans, including "Our demands must be met" and "Reject, reject, reject the new VC."
One protesting student accused Shariful of breaking the lock that had previously been placed on the building.
"The vice-chancellor broke the lock we had put up and entered the building. We gave him an ultimatum, but he did not listen. So we have locked it again," the student said.
Shariful, however, had earlier claimed that students themselves opened the lock to let him enter.
CUET Chhatra Dal President Wasif Rashed offered a different account, saying university staff had unlocked the building.
Speaking to bdnews24.com from inside the building, Wasif said Chhatra Dal members had gone to meet Shariful after learning that he had arrived on campus.
"When we heard that the vice-chancellor had come to the campus, we went to meet him. The VC then asked the university teachers to come for a discussion," he said.
"At one point, when the students came downstairs, the VC told them that he would come down and talk to them after finishing his discussion with the teachers. But the students locked the building. It is still locked."
Wasif also questioned the nature of the ongoing protests, claiming that ordinary students were no longer participating in the same way as before.
"Initially, the students had an emotional attachment to Prof Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem. Everyone took part in the movement at the time. But ordinary students are no longer involved in the same way," he said.
He alleged that some employees who had benefited under the previous government and former Chhatra League leaders were behind the unrest.
"What they are doing in defiance of the president's written order is an act against the state," he claimed.
The confrontation follows weeks of protests over the removal of Sayem, who was dismissed as vice-chancellor on Sept 21, just 56 days after taking office.
Shariful was appointed his successor the same day, prompting students to padlock the administrative building that night.
Since Sept 22, protesters have boycotted classes and examinations and enforced a shutdown on campus.
Teachers, officials and employees have also observed work abstentions and sit-in programmes demanding Sayem's reinstatement, bringing academic and administrative activities to a standstill.
Shariful formally joined his post online on Sept 24 but had not visited the campus before Monday, although he had been staying in Chattogram city.
He had been scheduled to attend a University Grants Commission meeting in Dhaka on Sunday and Monday, with Mechanical Engineering Department Prof Md Arafat Rahman assigned routine vice-chancellor duties during his absence.
The protesters had also rejected that arrangement.
Shariful's unexpected arrival on Monday morning, and the dispute over how he gained access to the locked building, triggered the latest confrontation.