Several hundred Dhaka University students rampaged through the campus by damaging vehicles and setting two of the on fire in protest at reckless driving after a car had hit one of their fellows on Thursday.
Residents of halls of residence brought out a procession and marched down the campus roads in protest at the accident, in which the student was critically injured, while the police charged at them with truncheons. Five students were injured in the police action.
Activists of the university unit Chhatra League, however, intercepted the procession and the rally, witnesses said.
Physicians at Dhaka Medical College Hospital said fourth-year psychology student Sadhan Kumar Gosh, who sustained injures in the head, was out of danger.
Syed Tanveer Rahman, a teacher of the university, also said the physicians had told him that the student was out of danger.
Witnesses said the students went on the rampage when a car, owned by Taibul Haque, a businessman living at Lalbagh, hit Sadhan on a road passing between Jagannath Hall and Shamsunnahar Hall.
Taibul’s daughter, a first-year student of Dhaka City College, was learning how to drive with the driver, Javed, 22, sitting inside the car, about 12:30pm.
University students present there detained Javed and the girl and took the injured Sadhan to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in the car.
The university teachers rescued two others, friends of the girl who were also in the car. The police later detained them for interrogation.
Some students later went to the hospital with bamboo sticks, smashed the car and set it on fire, Abdul Baten, who was present there, said. ‘The university students set fire to the car as the girl misbehaved with them.’
The fire panicked the people in the emergency ward of the hospital.
The Shahbagh police detained the driver and the girl student from the hospital, the police said.
As the news of the accident spread, dozens of students from the halls came out and damaged vehicles in different places on the campus.
The police barricaded all the entrances to the campus about 2:30pm and the students paraded the campus roads with sticks and stones.
The police in the afternoon arrested two university students — Sabbir Hasan of the Institute of Education Research and Nazmul Huda of the tourism department.
The university administration with the help of Chhatra League activists controlled the situation later afternoon, campus sources said.
The proctor, KM Saiful Islam, said the injured student would be given compensation.
He said they were taking measures to stop reckless driving and handing over 10 to 15 outsiders, who were learning how to drive cars on the campus, to the police every week.
The Shahbagh police operation officer, Brajendra Nath Bhadra, said they were making preparations to file case.
The Progressive Student Alliance, meanwhile, brought out procession on the campus in protest at the accident and demanded steps stop the recurrence of such accidents.
The campus sources said the students had assaulted four journalists, including NTV’s DMCH correspondent Al Amin, Mehedi Hassan of the Daily Sun, Shoeb Mithun of Banglanews.com and Saimon of the daily Independent when there covering the news.
The students snatched Al Amin’s camera and his identity card, witnesses said.
Al least 30,000 people, including 20,000 students of Dhaka University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and Dhaka Medical College live in the area.
At least five people were killed and about 50 people injured in reckless driving five years on the campus, the sources said.
Student leaders said the authorities were yet to take any measures to stop or restrict vehicle movement through the campus.
On August 26, Sukomol Barua, a professor of Pali and Buddhists studies, was injured as he fell down from a rickshaw, hit by a car near the Teachers-Students Centre.
On July 13, Rokeya Hall employee Rupchan Begum was killed in a road accident near the Teachers-Students Centre.
On December 12, a Dhaka University student and a rickshaw-puller were injured as two cars hit a rickshaw on Fuller Road on the university campus.
On June 22, 2009, Anima Rani Saha, wife of Professor Parimal Saha of Dhaka University, was killed when a car hit her in front of Jagannath Hall.
On May 28, 2005, Shammi Akhtar Happy, a resident of the Roqiuah Hall of the university, was killed in a road accident near the campus.
