Presidential pardon for four Bangladeshi teachers

Dhaka, Dec 11 - Four teachers of Bangladesh's Rajshahi University who were convicted for participating in an anti-government protest have been let off following a presidential pardon.

Jail authorities acted after they received a home ministry notification saying President Iajuddin Ahmed had Monday remitted all the sentences against the teachers - Moloy Kumar Bhoumik, Dulal Chandra Biswas, Abdullah Al Mamun and Selim Reza Newton - by exercising his power under the constitution.

The teachers were released 'in the face of rising public demand', The Daily Star newspaper reported, quoting family members who said they were unaware of the teachers having signed any mercy petition seeking presidential pardon.

Hundreds of students and teachers received the four at the prison gate.

The four were accused of leading protest demonstrations that turned violent in the university campus in western Bangladesh. A court let off two senior teachers who had also been accused of fuelling the protests last month.

Campuses across the country witnessed protests and violence Aug 20-22 for the first time since Bangladesh came under a national emergency on Jan 11, when elections were called off amidst political turmoil.

There were several media reports accusing India of sponsoring campus violence through its 'agents', a charge the Indian High Commission here vehemently denied.

The protests were triggered by a seemingly minor issue of a soldier, posted at the Dhaka University campus as part of the government's law enforcing arrangement, beating up a student who was blocking his view at a football match.

It acquired anti-army contours and an effigy of the Army Chief, General Moin U. Ahmed was burnt. Large-scale arrests followed after protests spread to other campuses.

Although the conviction of the four teachers cannot be revoked under the presidential order, they would not lose their jobs, Rajshahi University vice chancellor M. Altaf Hossain told the New Age daily.

(c) Indo-Asian News Service

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