Demo for dorm: BCL activists attack again agitating students [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Demo for dorm: BCL activists attack again agitating students

Local August 30, 2016

Ruling Awami League-backed Bangladesh Chhatra League leaders and activists once again on Monday launched attacks on Jagannath University students on movement in demand of residential halls.
Witnesses said that Chhatra League activists, led by JnU unit president FM Shoriful Islam, swooped on the agitating students several times, when they were holding peaceful programmes on the second day of their two-day strike on the campus.
The students said that at least 20 students were injured in a series of attacks by the BCL men while the students were going to bring out a procession from the campus, boycotting classes and examinations.
The injured were taken to the nearby private clinics and hospitals.
The agitating students said Chhatra League activists hit them with plastic chairs and sticks as they did not join the BCL programme.
‘If Chhatra League wants to hold a rally for halls, they can do it separately,’ said a student, asking, ‘Why are the BCL men barring our peaceful movement again and again?’
The students alleged that the BCL men were conspiring to detract their movement.
Monirul Islam Rajon, one of the organisers of the movement, said, ‘Chhatra League men kept me confined for several hours, hit me and make me chant slogans with them.’
He said that the students would hold strike on the campus on Tuesday on the same demand.
‘We will also hold a rally at Central Shaheed Minar in the capital at 10:00am on Tuesday,’ he added.
JnU unit Chhatra League president FM Shoriful Islam, however, denied the allegation that Chhatra League men attacked any student.
‘We are holding demonstrations demanding construction of halls. We will also hold strike on the campus on Tuesday also,’ he said.
He also said that everyone should come forward to strengthen the hall movement forgetting the past incidents.
‘Chhatra League is also holding demonstrations for halls,’ BCL central president Saifur Rahman Sohag told New Age on Monday when asked about the BCL attacks on the agitating students.
He said that he would look into the matter.
Earlier, on August 28, at least 15 students were injured as Chhatra League activists attacked the agitating students while they were bringing out a procession from the campus.
On August 24, at least five students were injured as Chhatra League activists attacked the agitating students while holding demonstrations for dormitories at Purana Paltan intersection in the capital.
‘We will carry on our movement until we get any definite answer from the government,’ said Raisul Islam Nayan, another organiser of the movement.
JnU proctor Noor Muhammad told New Age that no classes and examinations were held at the university because of the student strike.
‘The authorities will take steps once a written complaint is submitted to them,’ the proctor said when asked about BCL attacks on the agitators.
Meanwhile, the authorities on August 11 wrote a letter to the government seeking permanent ownership of the former jail property for construction of dormitories for the students.
The students have been holding demonstrations since August 1, boycotting classes and examinations and blocking roads in support of their demand for halls on the land of recently shifted Dhaka Central Jail.
The students say they have been living at rented houses as the authorities failed to provide them with accommodations since establishment of the university.