20 hurt as 'BCL men' swoop on protesters
At least 20 people were injured when activists of Pragatishil Chhatra Jote (Progressive Students' Alliance) were attacked allegedly by Chhatra League men in front of Government Tolaram College in Narayanganj city yesterday.
The activists of the students' alliance were demanding an end to the alleged irregularities in the HSC admissions by the BCL college unit.
However, the unit of the pro-ruling party student organisation has denied any involvement in the incidents. According to it, the protesters were “outsiders” and that is why the “common students” prevented them from entering the college.
Witnesses said the attack was carried out when a Chhatra Jote procession tried to get inside the college around 11:30am.
The procession was coming from a rally held on the Shaheed Minar premises in Chashara area.
The rally was organised also to ensure proper academic environment and to stop “criminal activities” on the college campus.
As soon as the protesters approached the college's main gate, some BCL activists, led by the college unit president Habibur Rahman Riyad, along with outsiders swooped on them with sticks and sharp weapons, according to witnesses.
Moitree Ghosh, Chhatra Union's district unit president,
alleged that on-duty police personnel did nothing to save their female activists during the attack.
The students' alliance claimed the attack left at least 20 of its activists injured. They were admitted to the 300-bed Narayanganj Hospital.
No one was detained.
Students were panicked after the incident. Additional police personnel were deployed on the campus.
On the allegation of BCL's involvement in the “admission trade”, Habibur claimed that there was no scope for such illegal practices in the college as the entire admission process is done online.
He denied his involvement in the attack as well.
Golam Mostafa, sub-inspector of Fatullah Police Station, claimed that no incident of attack took place on the campus yesterday.
Contacted, Jibon Krishna Modok, general secretary of the teachers' association in the college, said he was not aware of yesterday's incident as it happened outside the campus.
Meanwhile, the central committee of the Pragatishil Chhatra Jote in a press release has condemned the attack and demanded the attackers be arrested immediately.
Comments