BCL leader killed in Comilla infighting

On June 28, 2011, the two Chhatra League groups clashed using firearms and sharp weapons over formation of a BCL committee, leaving at least 40 people injured.

Four years later on Saturday afternoon, the same factions fought each other over same grounds, this time killing the pro-Awami League student body's Comilla unit president Saiful Islam Pradhan.

The incident, which left several others wounded, happened at a time when central BCL President HM Badiuzzaman Sohag and General Secretary Siddique Nazmul Alam are visiting the district to hold workers' meeting of the student organisation.

Earlier in the morning, two factions of Comilla University BCL treaded gunshot shortly before Sohag and Nazmul held a meeting there. No one was injured in that incident.

The workers' meetings were aimed to announce new committees, sources said.

Sohag and Nazmul have been holding meetings with district unit BCL committees, as the Awami League high command asked them to prepare for the central BCL council.

BCL sources said followers of Rail Minister Mujibul Haque and lawmaker AKM Bahauddin Bahar were locked in clashes soon after the meeting ended at the district's Town Hall Auditorium in the afternoon.

BCL men loyal to the rail minister opened fire and blasted handmade bombs at Pubali Chattar of Kandirpar to show their supremacy. Chhatra League men loyal to Bahauddin also fired bullets and clashed with intra-party rivals.

At one stage, Saiful was hit by a bullet in the eye and also stabbed in the chest and back. Critically injured, he was taken to a private hospital in the town where doctors operated on him.

Saiful, a leader of the Bahauddin-led faction, succumbed to injures around 9:00am yesterday. Tensions between rival groups escalated after the news of his death spread.

During the clash, the central BCL president's car was hit by bullets and the president himself took two wounded BCL leaders to a private hospital, added the sources.

Contacted, Khorshed Alam, officer-in-charge of Kotwali Model Police Station, said: “Supporters of Rail Minister Mujibul Haque and MP AKM Bahauddin Ahmed were locked into a clash over holding a rally on Saturday.”

The clash left 10 people injured -- six of them were bullet-hit, including Saiful Islam, police said.

Asked, Sohag described the clash as “totally a local affair” and that BCL was not involved in it. “The local Awami League has been facing factional problems for long and the clash is a result of that feud.”

He denied that his car was hit by bullets but admitted taking two injured BCL men to a hospital.