Two Rampal agitators held over 'militancy suspicion' in Khulna

Two men of Samajtantrik Chhatra Front taking part in a demonstration in Bangladesh BL College, Khulna against the Rampal power plant project were detained yesterday “on suspicion of being involved in militancy”.

Sanjib Mondal is the student organisation's college unit president and a management student while Romio Rahman an activist.

The front's Khulna city unit president, Gour Barmon, said Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) men first snatched their banner and returned with police later to take away the duo.

BCL does not have a declared unit at the college. Activists there declined to comment.

Vice Principal Prof Shikhder Moniruzzaman said it was police who brought the duo to his office with assistance of BCL activists of the college, informed of their suspicions and sought to detain them. 

However, Daulatpur Police Station Officer-in-Charge Anawar Hossain claimed it was the college authorities who brought the allegation and called them to the office to hand over the duo.

Selection of the Rampal site, located 14 kilometres northwest off the Sundarbans and four kilometres from the declared ecologically critical area, has been drawing a lot of flak.