The rampaging JCD activists along with four JCD leaders-turned-teachers attacked the protesters to free the VC and the proctor from confinement inside the Institute of Fine Arts.

The protesters, mostly female students, were demonstrating against the police atrocities on the students in the wake of the death of third-year student Shammee Akhter Happy who was run over by a speeding bus at Shahbagh on Saturday.

At least 100 students were wounded when the students fought pitched battles with the police immediately after the death of the student.

The protesters were demanding the removal of Proctor Prof AKA Firoz Ahmed, who they blamed for the mindless police assault, when the JCD hooligans burst onto the scene and beat the demonstrators up. Five journalists were also wounded and 10 female students were among the casualties.

The teachers who teamed up with the JCD men in the assault are Ishrafil Pramanik Ratan of graphics design department, Azharul Islam Sheikh Chanchal and Debasish Pal of ceramics department and Abu Abedin Mohammad Kawsar Hasan Togor of sculpture department, according to eyewitnesses.

Ratan was seen kicking several female students, while the other teachers slapped some demonstrators.

Abu Raihan, former general secretary of left-leaning Samajtantrik Chhatra Front (SCF), is fighting for life at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) with severe injures to his head and some other parts of the body.

An emergency meeting of the university syndicate has formed a nine-member committee headed by DU Treasurer Prof Syed Rashidul Hasan to investigate yesterday and Saturday's violent incidents. The enquiry committee has been asked to submit a report in a week.

The meeting also condemned the police atrocities on the institute premises on Saturday and expressed "deep concern" at the police attacks.

The demonstrators, including hundreds of female students of Rokeya Hall who protested Shammee's death and the subsequent police atrocities, confined VC Prof SMA Faiz and the proctor for three hours from 10:00am. They asked for immediate resignation of the proctor for what they said was his allowing the police to unleash atrocities on the campus on Saturday.

The JCD cadres armed with sticks stormed the scene and swooped on the protesters when they had set a deadline for the proctor to quit. The hooligans led by the JCD's DU unit President Hasan Mamun and General Secretary Saiful Islam Firoz beat up the protesting students and escorted the VC and proctor away.

Witnesses said the JCD cadres assaulted at least 200 students, more than 100 of them female, on the first floor of the Institute of Fine Arts building at about 1:30pm and asked the protesters to leave afterwards. They tossed two students, one of them female, from the first floor and repeatedly kicked another female student in the stomach, causing her to bleed. Later, they took her off the scene.

Things took a turn for the worse, as no sooner had the general students submitted a seven-point memorandum to the VC than the JCD President Hasan Mamun went to the office of the director of the institute. He asked the VC, confined to the room, to meet their own set of demands first, including punishment to the persons responsible for the attack on the proctor's office before fulfilling the demands of the general students.

Mamun also told the VC that the demonstrations at the institute were politically motivated and warned that they would wage a movement against him if the authorities try to meet the demonstrators' demands.

After Mamun left the room, the teachers of the institute told the VC they feared that the JCD activists would attack the demonstrators. Proving their apprehension true, some 100 JCD men attacked the demonstrators within five minutes.

The VC tried to walk out of the office flanked by the teachers, but the students stopped them.

VC CASTIGATED
Earlier, the teachers of the institute slammed the VC for his failure to tackle the campus situation on Saturday. They told him had he been on the spot, the police atrocities would not have taken place.

Prof Hashem Khan told the VC that the institution should be shut down, as the police entered its premises by force and tortured the examinees and teachers alike.

The VC, in his defence, said they repeatedly asked the police officers not to clash with the agitating students. At this, another teacher shot back at him, "What authority do you have on the campus if the police do not care to listen to you?"

"The institute and the university are no more needed since we do not have any security here," the teacher contended.

JCD CLAIM
Firoz, the JCD general secretary, claimed that a leader of a left-leaning student organisation assaulted Mamun and that their men only resisted them. "If the students did not assault our leaders, we would not attack them," he added.

TEACHERS MEET
The teachers at the Institute of Fine Arts held an emergency meeting to condemn the JCD attack but the participants split into two sides after teacher Sheikh Munir Uddin of History of Fine Arts subscribed to the JCD action.

The teachers said they have postponed all examinations and classes at the institute until congenial atmosphere returns there.

JOURNALISTS BEATEN UP
A group of JCD activists also beat up Mazharul Anwar Khan Shipu of Daily Janakantha, Riazul Islam of Daily Manavjamin, Fahad of the UNB, Sohel of Daily Bhorer Kagoj and Hasib of Daily Janata.

JCD activists Abu Helal of Ziaur Rahman Hall and Maksud of Jashimuddin Hall were expelled for their involvement with the attack on journalists. A JCD press release also said their membership has been cancelled.

PROTEST SONGS
After the JCD assault, the demonstrators regrouped under the banner of The Students against Torture on the Central Shaheed Minar premises and sang protest songs, recited protest poems and chanted slogans in favour of their demands.

Dhaka University Teachers' Association (Duta) President Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique and Dean of Social Science Prof Harun-or-Rashid expressed solidarity with the demonstrators there.

PRESS CONFERENCES
At separate press conferences at the Shaheed Minar and at Madhu's Canteen, The Students against Torture and the Progatishil Chhatra Jote (PCJ), a combine of left- leaning student organisations, demanded immediate fulfilment of their demands.

The demands include immediate resignation of the VC and the proctor, punishment to the police and JCD men responsible for the attacks on students, naming of the road from the TSC to Shahbagh intersection as Shammee Akther Saroni, ban on movements of all public vehicles on the campus, and compensation for the injured students.

The PCJ leaders said they would stage demonstrations today, and lay siege to the VC's office and hold countrywide protests tomorrow. The Students against Torture would hold a solidarity rally at the foot of Aparajeo Bangla on the campus at 11:00am today.

The JCD has arranged a blood donation programme at the same place same time marking the 24th death anniversary of president Ziaur Rahman, also BNP's founder. But the general students say it is nothing but an attempt to foil the rally.

VC'S VERSION
The VC told journalists that he has written to the state minister for home for taking punitive steps against the policemen responsible for the atrocities on Saturday.

About the attack, VC Faiz said he did not know which organisation launched the attack on the demonstrators. "I wanted to stand between the two groups of students to avert violence, but I could not do that," he added.

Asked if the proctor would be removed, he said the enquiry committee has been tasked to find out whether there were lapses on the part of the proctor and the assistant proctors. He said action would be taken against them if found guilty.

RALLIES AND PROCESSIONS
Scores of student bodies including the JCD, pro-Awami League Bangladesh Chhatra League and its six allied student bodies, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front, Progatishil Chhatra Jote, the students of psychology department and Bangladesh Chhatra Union took out processions and held rallies on the campus protesting Saturday's police atrocities.

THE INJURED
Critically injured Akram Hossain, tossed out of the first floor of Sergeant Jahurul Haque Hall by the JCD men, was undergoing treatment at the Orthopedics Hospital at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar. Doctors said his right leg has been broken.

Salauddin Farhad, Bikash Bhowmik, Atonu Sharma, Sheikh Rafiq and Shyamol Arnabi were admitted to the DMCH.

More than 40 other injured received treatment at different city hospitals and clinics.

CLASS BOYCOTT
The students of the institute continued their indefinite boycott of classes and examinations protesting the atrocities.

CASE FILED
University authorities Saturday night filed a case with Ramna Police Station against the driver and helper of the bus that crushed Shammee.