ATTACK ON DU VC’S HOUSE Four outsiders arrested

The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police have arrested four outsiders in connection with the attack on the Dhaka University vice-chancellor’s house early April 9 during student protests for reform of quota system in public service recruitment.
Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Raihanul Islam remanded the arrested – Rakibul Hasan for four days, Ali Hossen Sheikh for three days and Abu Sayeed Fazle Rabbi Siam and Masud Alam for two days – in police custody for interrogation, said court police official sub-inspector Mahmudul Islam.
‘They were arrested at places by Saturday,’ the investigator said, adding that Rakib was also named in four cases of various offences, including robbery, in Lakshmipur. 
‘None of them were student of Dhaka University,’ he said. 
Another investigator said that they had identified the four through a device looted from the residence during the attack and operation was on to capture the rest of the attackers.
On April 10, Dhaka University senior security officer SM Kamrul Ahsan lodged a case with Shahbagh police station against over 100 unnamed ‘masked’ criminals for the attack on the residence between 12:30am and 2:00am on April 9. 
In the complaint, Kamrul stated that the attacker stormed into the vice-chancellor’s residence with rods, pipes, hemmers and sticks and vandalised furniture, television, fridge, fans, lights, commodes and basins, and set fire to two cars and damaged a third one on the premises. 
They also damaged all the CCTV cameras and burned the digital video recorders installed with computers. 
‘The university believed that outsiders and instigators might be involved in the attack,’ Kamrul stated, adding, ‘they carried out the attack to destabilise Dhaka University and embarrass the government by killing the vice-chancellor.’
With the case, five cases were filed for incidents relating to protests for reduction of quota in public service recruitment, and those were transferred to the Detective Branch of police for investigation.
Vice-chancellor Md Akhtaruzzaman said that the cases had no connection with the protests.
The protests intensified on April 8 as police fired several hundred teargas shells and rubber bullets, used water cannons and charged truncheons to disperse the demonstrators who blocked the Shahbagh crossing for over five hours. The clashes went on throughout the night.
About 100 people were injured during the clashes. After the police action, a number of ‘masked attackers’ attacked the the vice-chancellor’s residence early April 9.
On April 16, three joint conveners of protesting students’ platform Bangladesh Sadharan Chhatra Adhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad – Nurul Haq Noor, Faruk Hossain and Rashed Khan – were picked up and detained for over an hour after they issued a 48-hour ultimatum to withdraw cases filed against unnamed protesters.
Detective Branch joint commissioner Abdul Baten had, however, said that it was a ‘misunderstanding.’
The protesters are still demanding withdrawal of the cases to avoid further harassment.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net