The DU teachers at the sit-in programme said vested quarters under the shelter of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government are killing progressive teachers, political leaders, civil society members and intellectuals one after another. They alleged that the government has always remained completely indifferent to bringing the killers to book.

The Dhaka University Teachers' Association (Duta) organised the one-hour sit-in demonstration in front of the Arts Faculty building from 11:00am to 12:00 noon, protesting the killing of Rajshahi University Professor S Taher Ahmed on February 03.

The DU teachers demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment to the killers of Taher.

Duta President Sharifullah Bhuiyan said the government should immediately identify the killers and bring them to justice. "The same quarters...killed Prof Humayun Azad of Dhaka University in 2004, Prof Dr Yunus of Rajshahi University last year and Prof S Taher Ahmed recently but the government is still indifferent," he said.

He threatened to go for tougher agitation programmes if stern measures are not taken immediately against the killers of Taher.

Duta General Secretary Prof M Akhtaruzzaman accused the alliance government of playing "drama" following the killings of university teachers in a bid to save the real culprits.

"Attacks on the teachers will not stop unless the government dissociates itself from the perpetrators of the crime," said former Duta president Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique.

DU former vice chancellor Prof AK Azad Chowdhury, Dean of Social Science Faculty Prof Harun-or-Rashid, Duta Vice President Prof Tazmery SA Islam, Chairman of Mass Communication and Journalism Department Prof Golam Rahman, among others, were present at the programme.

The DU teachers later brought out a silent procession, marching different roads on the campus from the foot of Aparajeyo Bangla to the Central Shaheed Minar.