Edn minister blames police for clash

Education minister Dipu Moni on Tuesday said that the situation in the New Market areas following the overnight clashes between Dhaka College students and traders would have been better had the police been there since morning.

She called upon both sides to restrain them so that the situation could come under control.

‘The situation would have been better had the police been there since morning,’ Dipu Moni said this while talking to reporters at the Chandpur Circuit House in the afternoon. 

She, however, said that the police were trying to bring the situation under control in the New Market area in the city.

The education minister expressed hope that students would leave the campus as the Eid vacation was announced for them and their dormitories would remain closed.  

The minister, returning to Dhaka at night, called on the Dhaka College students to restrain and demanded investigation into lobbing teargas shells on students by the police.

After a meeting on law and order at the secretariat at about 1:30pm, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that those who led the clashes between students and traders over a trivial matter would be brought to book.

He expressed the hope that the situation would come under control soon.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam on the other hand said that the situation had taken a very complex turn at the scene.

‘The police are treating students softly for technical reasons. The situation cannot be controlled by firing here because students, not the common people, are on the streets,’ he said after the meeting.

Over 100 people, including students, traders, workers and journalists were injured during the series of clashes that began on Monday night and continued throughout Tuesday in the New Market area.

News Courtesy: