BCL assaults 12 JCD leaders, 3 journalists at DU

At least 12 Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal leaders and three Dhaka University correspondents of different media outlets were injured as Bangladesh Chhatra League activists attacked them on the campus on Monday within 24 hours of assurance of peaceful coexistence on the campus.

The BCL activists also snatched a mobile of one of the journalists while he was filming the incident.

The incident took place just a day after BCL warned that if anyone hatched any plot to unstable the campus, Chhatra League would give a befitting reply.

The warning came after members of the newly formed Chhatra Dal central committee president Fazlur Rahman Khokan and Iqbal Hossain Shyamal went to Madhur Canteen in Dhaka University on Sunday and brought out a procession, together with several hundred members, after a couple of years.

Witnesses said JCD secretary Iqbal Hossain Shaymal turned up at Madhur Canteen on Monday morning, but was compelled to leave the canteen amid continuous shouting of the BCL activists.

Shyamal then moved to Hakim Chattar started giving interview to several electronic media.

Later BCL DU unit president Sanjit Chandra Das and his followers went there and asked the JCD activists to immediately leave the campus and the JCD activists went to Swaparjita Swadhinata premises at about 12:30pm.

After several minutes, nearly 50 BCL activists swopped on the JCD activists and beat them with iron rods, sticks and hockey sticks.

The injured JCD activists were initially given treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital and later shifted to a private hospital at Kakrail where BNP senior leaders including secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir went to see them.

BCL Surja Sen Hall unit organising secretary Mariam Zaman Khan, Jashimuddin Hall unit joint general secretary Emam Hasan, joint secretary Shariful Islam Shopu, AF Rahman Hall unit vice-president Hossain Mahmud Apple, DU unit deputy publication affairs secretary Mohsin Alam Talukdar, and Bijoy Ekattor Hall unit vice‑president Abdullah Al Fariyal took part in the attacks.

Most of them were followers of Sanjit Chandar Das.

Talking to reporters, JCD general secretary Iqbal Hossain Shaymal said, ‘Chhatra League activists attacked us without any provocation. At least 30 of our activists were injured; among them nine are critically injured.’

Meanwhile, BCL activists beat three campus journalists while they were filming the incident. They were Daily Potidiner Sangbad correspondent Rahatul Islam Rafi, Business Bangla correspondent Afsar Munna and Student Journal correspondent Anisur Rahman.

Anisur sustained injury in his left ear and was undergoing treatment at the university medical centre following primary treatment at DMCH.

BCL DU unit president Sanjit Chandra Das denied his involvement with the attack.

He claimed that there was no direction from them to launch any attack, but some ‘over-enthusiastic’ BCL activists might have carried out it.

He added that they would identify the attackers soon and would take organisational action.

DU proctor AKM Golam Rabbani said they would take action if anyone files complaint regarding the incident.

Meanwhile, Dhaka University Central Student Union vice-president Nurul Haque Nur on Monday in a statement condemned the attack and urged the authorities to take action against the attackers.

Chhatra Dal managed to hold very few programmes on the DU campus after the AL-led government assumed office in January 2009.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net