DHAKA, 11 December 2007 — Four Bangladeshi university teachers who had been jailed for inciting violent student unrest were set free yesterday hours after a presidential pardon.

“President Iajuddin Ahmed has approved the clemency, considering mercy petitions filed by their respective wives,” a senior official at the Presidential Palace told Reuters.

Family members and hundreds of Rajshahi University students received the four teachers — Moloy Kumar Bhoumik, Dulal Chandra Biswas, Sayed Selim Reza Newton and Abdullah Al Mamun — at the gate of the Rajshahi Central Jail in the afternoon.

The clemency follows a series of silent protests by teachers and students at major universities in the country.

Although rallies and marches were banned by the army-backed interim government that assumed power in January following weeks of deadly political violence, teachers and students have worn black badges and held silent rallies on campuses in recent days. A court had sentenced the teachers from the Rajshahi University last Tuesday to two years in jail for inciting student unrest in August.

Four other teachers from the Dhaka University, the country’s biggest, are being tried on similar charges by another court, officials said.

A man was killed in Rajshahi and several hundred were injured there and in other cities as students fought battles with police, in defiance of a state of emergency in force since January.