Back in 2019, when Abrar Fahad, a second-year student in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) department at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), was brutally tortured to death, the nation was shaken to its core. Abrar's murder revealed the dark side of student politics in universities, and university students across the country wanted an end to such politics at their campuses.

Dip Shekhor Dutta, CSE-21, KUET

Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET) was no different from this situation; KUET students also wanted their campus to be free from such student politics. But, on February 18, 2025, clashes began at KUET in the afternoon over a restriction on student politics that has been in place at the university since the fall of the Awami League regime in August last year.

After the unprecedented violence, students started protesting against this. As a part of the protest, a photo exhibition titled "Roktakto KUET" with the tagline "Remonstrance In Images, Demands In Unity", was organised at the Student Welfare Center in the KUET campus on February 21, 2025, by its students. The exhibition reflected the horrors students faced during the clashes that took place on February 18. 

University clubs such as KUET-PS, KUET Radio, and Kolpopot- KUET Artist's Society lent a hand along with the general students to make the exhibition successful. More than a hundred photographs from different individuals were displayed and documentaries related to the violence were played in the exhibition.

Photo: Siam Sadik, EEE-19, KUET

When questioned about the exhibition's motive, one of the students from KUET said, "The sole purpose of this exhibition is to let the nation and our people know what our students endured and to protect them from false information." 

"The pictures exhibited here are heart-wrenching and I want my campus to be free of politics," said Fahim, a student from the Department of Civil Engineering when asked about his feelings during a visit to the exhibition.

Abrar Hossain Rohid is a Campus Ambassador for The Daily Star from KUET.