10 injured, 12 detained as police use tear gas, batons

At least 10 students were injured as police charged batons and fired tear gas shells to disperse students of seven colleges newly affiliated with Dhaka University as they staged protests at Shahbagh in Dhaka on Thursday demanding schedule for examinations.
Law enforcers also detained 12 students from the demonstration that lead to a traffic chaos for about an hour in the busy intersection.
Witnesses said that several hundred students from Dhaka College, Eden Mahila College, Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College, Kabi Nazrul Government College, Begum Badrunnessa Government Girls’ College, Government Bangla
College and Government Titumir College gathered in front of National Museum at about 10:00am.
They formed a human chain in front of the museum before moving to Shahbagh intersection for a sit-in, demanding announcement of schedules for their examinations, as the academic activities were in a reshuffle process after their affiliation with Dhaka University in February.
As the students tried to block the Shahbagh intersection, police barred them creating a scuffle.
Police dispersed the agitating students charging batons and firing tear gas shells, witnesses said.
Shahbagh police officer-in-charge Abul Hassan said that the students were given permission for holding peaceful protests in front of the museum, but they tried to block roads.
‘The unruly behaviour of the students forced us to use batons and tear gas shells,’ he said.
He said that 12 students were detained.
HM Riyad, a final year student of Dhaka College, said that they feared academic deadlock as the schedules of examinations for 2013-14 session were not announced yet.
‘We gathered here for a peaceful demonstration, but police used force to disperse us unjustly,’ he said.
Another protestor Saikat Arif from the same college said, ‘We are afraid that we would be victims of prolonged student life,’ he said.
In February, the seven colleges were affiliated with Dhaka University.
As per the rules, all activities of theses colleges, including admission process, examinations and developing academic syllabuses, would be conducted by the university.
Dhaka University vice-chancellor and principals of the seven colleges held a meeting on Wednesday to decide the examination schedule.
The meeting decided to conduct the examinations of honours and master’s courses in phases from September.
The students said that they wanted complete schedules of examinations.
Dhaka College principal Moazzem Hossain Molla told New Age that the examinations were primarily fixed to be started in phases from September, but detailed schedules were not finalised yet.
Dhaka University authorities would announce the schedules soon, he said.
Moazzem said that the sad incident of attack on students by police could be avoided, if the students consulted them before going for protests 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net