A Correspondent:
Islamic University: The teachers of Islamic University in Kushtia on Tuesday sought Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s intervention over the leaked audio conversations of the university’s vice-chancellor Pro-fessor Shaikh Abdus Salam with a job seeker of the mass communication and journalism department of the university.
The teachers under the banner of Shapla Forum, an Awami League -allied teachers’ platform, sought the intervention of the government in a press conference held at IUTA’s teachers’ lounge in the morning.
Reading a written statement out, IU Shapla Fourm’s general secretary Professor M Mahbubar Rahman said that several audio clips containing conversations between the VC and a job seeker as well as differ-ent ministry officials went viral on social media that created a tense situation on the campus.
The vice-chancellor could not share any recruitment information to a job seeker as a chairman of the university’s recruitment boards.
The audio clips containing conversations between the VC and a job seeker went viral on social media on February 17 where Salam was heard asking a jobseeker to bring two other candidates because it needs a quorum of at least three candidates to hold the recruitment test. The vice-chancellor gave him some ad-vice for the test as well, Mahbub said.
In another audio clip, he was also heard telling a government official over the phone that there was no appointment without money before tenure. The image of the teaching profession on the campus has been tarnished by such conversations, he said.
When Shapla Forum submitted a written statement to the vice-chancellor asking him to clear his position in this connection, the VC claimed the conversations as his own but he did not agree to explain his posi-tion in writing.
The university authorities could not take action against any corrupted people on the campus as the vice-chancellor himself is the accused of recruitment anomaly.
‘We, in this situation, sought government intervention,’ he added.
Among others, Shapla Forum president Professor M Mamunur Rahman, its vice-president Professor Shelina Nasrin, joint-secretary Professor Anichur Rahman and its members Professors Tapan Kumar Godder, Miah M Rashiduzzaman, Rabiul Hossain, Hossain Farooque, Sadek Ali and Shahed Ahmed were present in the press conference.
Earlier, 10 audio clips of conversations between the vice-chancellor and different people went viral on social media from February 16 to March 7.
On February 17, acting IU registrar HM Ali Hasan filed a general diary with the Islamic University po-lice station after an audio clip of conversation between Salam and a jobseeker of mass communication and journalism department had gone viral.
On March 12, the university authorities formed a five-member probe body led by biology faculty dean Rezwanul Islam to identify the person involved in spreading the conversations on social media.
