Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University students vandalise trade fair structures over secretariat relocation plan

Students of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU) have protested against the government’s announcement to relocate the Bangladesh Secretariat from its current location to the site of the former trade fair ground in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka. During the protest, they vandalised a gate and several stalls built for an international trade fair.

The students began damaging the fairground structures on Wednesday morning, October 28.

Earlier in the morning, they gathered in front of the university’s flagstand before marching to the former trade fair ground, where they staged a sit-in and chanted slogans demanding the recovery of the field. The protest later escalated, with demonstrators vandalising the fair’s gate and stalls.

The students said they had asked the fair organisers on Tuesday to remove the fair structures and had set a deadline for doing so. However, they said they had seen no progress.

“We will continue our movement until we get our field back,” they said.

Mohammad Jahangir Islam, an organiser involved in the fair, said they would arrange to remove the gate immediately.

“We are telling them to remove the gate right away. We are not outsiders to this university. We will take it down,” he said.

On Tuesday, October 27, soil-quality testing was under way at the fairground as part of preparations for constructing the Secretariat there. Around midday, university students staged a protest march and took soil-testing equipment and two vehicles to the university campus.