He asked for his calculator, got beaten up by BCL men

All he asked a BCL man was the return of his calculator that the latter borrowed around three months ago. But little did he imagine that he would have to face dire consequences just for asking.

On Tuesday night, a group of Bangladesh Chhatra League activists of Salimullah Muslim Hall unit of Dhaka University beat up Ehsan Rafiq, a second-year student of disaster management and science department, leaving him seriously injured.

“Omar Faruk of marketing department borrowed my calculator around three months ago. On Tuesday, when I asked for it to be returned, he refused to do so and threatened me with dire consequences,” alleged Ehsan.

“Later, the hall unit [BCL] Vice-President Tanim, Joint General Secretary Anim Irtija Shovon and Abu Taher asked me to show up at the dormitory's TV room. Then they snatched my mobile phone terming me a Shibir activist.”

As the BCL men did not find his involvement with Shibir after browsing through his Facebook account, they forced him to admit that he was a Shibir activist and then beat him up mercilessly, said Ehsan.

Afterwards, BCL hall unit President Tahsan Ahmed Rasel asked his followers to take Ehsan to the dorm playground, said Ehsan.

Upon reaching the ground, BCL activists, including BCL hall unit Assistant Secretary Omar Faruk (who borrowed the calculator), Ruhul Amin, Samiul Islam Sami, Ahsan Ullah, and Deputy Secretary Mehedi Hasan Himel, again beat him up with iron rods and sticks, leaving him severely injured, alleged Ehsan.

The attackers then took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and told the duty doctors that he was injured in an accident.

Ehsan claimed that summoning all to the playground was actually a trick of Tahsan, indirectly instructing his followers to beat him up.

After primary treatment at the DMCH, he returned to his dorm around 4:30am yesterday. Tahsan and his followers then allegedly confined him to Tahsan's room for eight hours so that the news of the incident did not spread.

At one point, when BCL activists in the room went outside keeping the door open, Ehsan escaped around 2:00pm.

Contacted, Tahsan admitted that there was an incident of beating up Ehsan at the dorm's TV room but he denied the allegation of giving instruction to the BCL activists to beat him on the playground.

Denying the allegation of confinement, he claimed, “I just asked Ehsan to take rest in my room and tried to solve the issue.”

Ehsan sleeps on the veranda of the dorm. He does not have an assigned room. He is the first boy of his class.

As his condition deteriorated last night, Ehsan went back to the DMCH where doctors told him that his injured eye could take two months to heal.

BCL last night expelled Omar Faruk, Mehedi Hasan Himel and Ruhul Amin for breaking the student body's discipline rules.