Chittagong University (CU) students staged a midnight protest after a Jamaat-e-Islami leader claimed the university stood on their “ancestral land” and declared, “We are the landlords, we will not tolerate interference.”
The remarks came from Sirajul Islam, Jamaat’s candidate for Chittagong-5 (Hathazari), during a meeting with local residents of Jobra village on Thursday evening. In his speech, now widely circulated on social media, Sirajul Islam said, “Chittagong University was built on our ancestral property. We are the owners of this land. If the university does not respect us, we will take necessary steps with the people.”
His comments triggered outrage among CU students. Around 2:00 a.m. Friday night, students gathered at the university’s Gol Chattar, A F Rahman Hall, and Shaheed Forhad Hossain Hall to protest. Chanting slogans such as “No landlordism over CU” and “We will not let our brothers’ blood go in vain,” they denounced the remarks as insulting and provocative amid ongoing tensions between students and local villagers.
The meeting in Jobra also featured Habibullah Khaled, office secretary of Chittagong University’s Islami Chhatra Shibir unit, who blamed “outsiders” for the violence, calling on locals to identify and hand them over. However, his statement was criticized for downplaying the role of local attackers.
In a rare move, Chhatra Shibir’s CU unit later distanced itself from Sirajul Islam’s remarks, issuing a press release on Saturday. Signed by the group’s publicity secretary, the statement condemned the Jamaat leader’s “arrogant and offensive” comments as harmful to students and accused him of shielding local perpetrators. Shibir also expressed “regret” that their own representative at the meeting failed to reflect the full truth.
The statement went further, accusing leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Chhatra Dal of directly participating in the recent clashes, alleging that armed cadres were involved. BNP and Chhatra Dal leaders rejected these claims, saying Shibir was attempting to politicize the violence and shift blame.
The controversy comes in the aftermath of last weekend’s violent clashes between CU students and residents of Jobra village, which left more than 200 people injured, mostly students. The situation remains tense on campus as students accuse local groups, with political backing, of repeated aggression.
