Over 150 students sued

A case was filed yesterday accusing 150 to 200 unidentified Dhaka College students while police have been provided some footage of Thursday's clash with traders on Mirpur Road in the capital that left at least 30 persons injured, including pedestrians and shoppers.

Swapan, an executive member of Dhanmondi Hawkers' Market Association, filed the case with New Market Police Station and the association provided the footage, Officer-in-Charge (investigation) Mahbubur Rahman told The Daily Star.

He said police were scrutinising the footage. No arrest was reported till filing of this report last night. This correspondent found normalcy in the area yesterday noon with people going through the shops as usual.

Dhaka College students clashed with traders on the stretch of Mirpur Road between New Market and Science Laboratory intersections, paralysing the city's busiest shopping hub for hours.

Over 24 shops were vandalised and “looted”, four motorbikes set on fire and some vehicles damaged before police managed to bring the situation under control around 5:30pm.

Jasim Uddin, additional deputy commissioner (Ramna Division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said about 700 students and over 1,000 shop owners and hawkers were engaged in the violence.

The association Joint Secretary Mohammad Khorshed Alam said, “We filed the case because our loss stood at around Tk 50 lakh.” He accused some Dhaka College students of threatening traders at times and compelling them to sell clothes at comparatively low prices and sometimes to give those away for free.

“Yesterday, (Thursday) they tried to take clothes without paying and thus they created chaos. They looted our clothes and beat our traders,” said Khorshed, adding that the evidence was present in the footage.

He said the traders were requesting police to take stern action against the perpetrators after conducting an investigation based on the footage.