Punishment for Gazipur safari park leaseholder demanded
Students of Jahangirnagar University yesterday demanded termination of the contract with the leaseholder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park in Gazipur, whose goons beat up a team of visitors from the university's botany department on Wednesday.
Staging a rally on Amar Ekushey premises on the campus, the protestors also demanded setting up of a police outpost inside the park where the employees often harass visitors.
Some 212 teachers, students and staff of the department went to visit the park, taking a permit and partial waiver of the entry fees from the forest department, the students said. But when they arrived there, the employees of the leaseholder refused them entry and demanded Tk 50 for each visitor instead of Tk 800 for all the 212 as approved by the forest department, they said.
Following an altercation, around 15 men armed with machetes, sticks and iron rods assaulted the visitors injuring at least 25 people, including two teachers, the protesters said. The attackers left after intervention of the Gazipur deputy commissioner, and police escorted the JU team to the campus. A general dairy was lodged with Gazipur Police Station, the students said.
The demonstrators also demanded compensation for the injured victims.
Later, the students marched to the administrative building and handed over a memorandum to the acting vice-chancellor, Prof MA Matin, demanding immediate action against the incident.
They also announced a five-day protest programme till Wednesday to meet their demands.
Prof Talim Hossain, chairman of the botany department; Mahmudur Rahman, president of JU unit Bangladesh Chhatra League; and Moytri Barman, convener of JU Chhatra Front, and a number of students of other departments joined the demonstration, expressing solidarity.
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