A group of Dhaka University (DU) students formed a  human chain at the base of Aparajeo Bangla here yesterday in protest against overcrowded hostel rooms and lack of residential seats for many students. The protesters under the banner of “General Students of DU” also accused the student wing of the ruling party of repression and patronising unsavoury practices.

The agitating students urged the DU authorities to ensure their rights and secure a legal residential seat for each student from the first year itself. Armanul Haque, a second-year student of international relations and an activist of the left-leaning Chhatra Federation, said: “Some 30 to 40 students are forced to live in a room that has a capacity for only four to eight people. Such accommodations are arranged and controlled by a specific student organisation.”

He alleged that many of these students were forced to indulge in crime at the bidding of their political seniors. “They come and take admission as good students, but pass out as militants,” he added. Sheikh Emily Jamal, a third-year student, said: “Students do not get proper space to study or sleep in those overcrowded rooms. At Ruqayyah Hall, around 50 students are forced to live in a single room, which only has a capacity for 15.”

She also said the problem can be resolved if the authorities distributed residential seats properly. Baki Billah Al Mahadi, a third-year student of international relations, said, “Political seniors address us by using vulgar words instead of our names inside guest room (a political culture in DU)”.

“While it is time to study or do my research, I have to seek out a senior and give him a ‘political salaam’ (exchange greeting as part of a political culture). We were barred from open and independent discussions in the first year,” he added.

Nahid Islam, a third-year student of Sociology, claimed that the students’ representatives in the Dhaka University Central Students Union (DUCSU) were silent on the accommodation crisis on campus.

“We will go for a tougher movement if DUCSU did not take any initiative to resolve the problem,” he said.

The joint-convener of Bangladesh General Students’ Rights Protection Council, Bin Yamin Mollah, and other student leaders addressed the protesters.