The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Postgraduate medical students Sunday staged demonstrations on the central Shaheed Minar premises to press for resignation of Professor Abul Kashem Khandaker, head of medicine department of Dhaka Medical College.

The agitating students who came from different medical colleges affiliated with Dhaka University also demanded immediate cancellation of 'allied system' from their curriculum, which was earlier interpolated into their post-curricular Doctor of Medicine, Masters of Surgery (MDMS) through an amendment.

Seeking anonymity, one agitating student told UNB by phone in the afternoon that the Faculty of Medicine had formed a 7-member committee, headed by Abul Kashem Khandaker, in the face of strong student protest to resolve the matter on June 18.

The committee was also asked to decide a strategy on how the course curriculum would be carried out without allied system.

But Abul Kashem with the help of two other members of the committee announced that allied system would not be cancelled from their curriculum on June 30, ignoring the order of the Faculty of Medicine. "And that forced us to go for demonstration," he said.

Citing an example, he said despite of being a skin student, he is to answer questions about brain tumor. "So it should be removed."

During the one-hour demonstrations from 12 noon, the postgraduate students also burnt an effigy of Professor Abul Kashem after forming a human chain at the central Shaheed Minar.

Later, they submitted a memorandum to the Health Ministry seeking its attention to the problem for a solution.