Dhaka University Professor Emeritus Serajul Islam Choudhury yesterday said the brutal suppression of dissent at universities is alarming because these institutions are supposed to nurture free speech.

“Bring back my son alive.” This is all Rokeya Khatun could say as her relatives tried to console her in her home on Kushtia town’s PTTI Road.

Room 2011. It is the second last room located on the first floor of the five-storey Sher-e-Bangla Hall at Buet. Although innocuous-looking from the outside, the room is known among the students to be a torture cell and a party hub.