Hasnat ends hunger strike at DU VC's assurance

Hasnat Abdullah, a Master's student of the English Department of Dhaka University (DU), who has been protesting student harassment at the administrative offices ended his hunger strike after 27 hours at the assurance of the university's Vice-Chancellor to meet his demands on Wednesday.
Vice-Chancellor Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman broke his hunger strike giving him water at around 2:00pm. University Proctor Prof AKM Golam Rabbani was also present at this time.
Hasnat was later taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) by his friends. During the strike, he lost his sense for several times.
Earlier at around 10:30am on Wednesday, students of this university held a rally in front of the Administrative Building expressing solidarity with Hasnat.
At one point of their programme, Assistant Proctor Prof Mahbubur Rahman was seen scolding a protester and ordering the proctorial members to arrest him as he (the protester) did not include 'Sir' after the designations -- Vice Chancellor, Proctor and Registrar -- while he was addressing their demands.
However, ahead of the agitated students' protest, he was released.
The protesters also besieged Vice-Chancellor's office for more than half an hour at 12:30pm.
Later at around 1:30pm, some teachers of the English Department (Hasnat's department) were seen meeting the Vice-Chancellor at his office.
While visiting Hasnat, Vice-Chancellor Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman assured the students to meet all their demands.
The Vice-Chancellor declared that from this moment no student will have to go to the registrar building for official work and added all activities will be completed in halls and departments.
"We have manpower there and necessary instructions will be given," Prof Akhtaruzzaman added.
Prof Akhtaruzzaman also assured the students that if anyone is harassed, action will be taken by respective hall provost and department chairman.
Earlier on August 30, Hasnat stood in front of the administrative building with eight-point demands to resolve the administrative complications of various sections of the university and handed over a memorandum to the Vice Chancellor with a ten-day ultimatum.
As the demands were not met, he started a sit-in programme from September 18 in front of the registrar building. Later on September 20, he started fast-unto-death after getting no effective response from the Vice-Chancellor.