bdnews24.com, Rajshahi
Rajshahi University closed indefinitely after an Islami Chhatra Shibir leader was killed and scores were injured in campus clashes with Bangladesh Chh-atra League on Friday.
Sharifuzzaman Nomani, general secretary of the RU Shibir unit, died around midday, Rajpara Police Station OC Anisur Rahman told bdnews24.com.
Assistant proctor Moshtaq Ahmed told bdnews24.com the authorities decided to shut down the public university and asked male students to vacate dormitories by 5pm. The female students will have to leave theirs by 10am Saturday. The university would provide buses to help the students leave the campus, Ahmed added.
Hundreds of activists of the Jamaat-backed ICS gained control of the Rajshahi University campus from noon after two days of tension and clashes with rivals including the ruling Awami League-backed BCL.
Eight to 10 people including police have already been injured, witnesses said. “A fierce gun battle is on,” a campus insider told bdnews24.com in the morning.
Journalists, including the bdnews24.com correspondent, covering the violence were forced out of the campus.
They said over a hundred ICS activists were sued Thursday after nearly 500 of them, carrying firearms, entered the campus Wednesday, seeking to flush out rivals. Police in an overnight raid detained 68 ICS activists after the campus BCL chief filed the case, naming senior Shibir and Jamaat men.
The clashes between ICS and BCL activists backed by locals resumed in the early hours Friday, police said. Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman told bdnews24.com at noon: “Chhatra League is backed by the government.” He sought the intervention of the prime minister.
He condemned Nomani’s killing, saying, “It was a planned incident.” He said BCL cadres were still planning armed attacks on ICS students at different halls and educational institutions in Rajshahi. “If the Chhatra League cadres aren’t brought to task, the situation will worsen,” said Kamarazzuman. He claimed ruling party Awami League was responsible. Moti-har police chief Rafiqul Islam Khan told bdnews24.com Friday, “Rajshahi University BCL president Ibrahim Hossain Moon filed a case Thursday night against four to five hundred ICS activists, naming 164 of them.”
“He accused them of attacking BCL leaders and activists, vandalising their rooms at the dorms and using explosives.”
Names of Rajshahi city Jama’at-e-Islami leader Ema-juddin Mandal, RU ICS president Delwar Hossain Saidi and general secretary Nomani were included in the case statement, police said.
The case was filed after ICS activists attacked and injured BCL activists at the university Wednesday. Motihar police then raided the RU halls and neighbouring Godhuli Students’ Hostel and Binodpur Welfare Foundation, with the operation continuing from 2am till 5:30 am. Police took 68 ICS activists into custody. Immediately after the police raid, the Shibir activists attacked the BCL activists at Shaheed Suhrawardi Hall and Shaheed Shamsuzzoha Hall, wounding seven. The RU authorities then ordered closure of six dormitories including these two.
At around 9am Friday, a local trader of Binodpur was atta-cked, bringing the angry locals into the fight. They joined the BCL activists to counter the Shibir onslaught.
Of the injured, Rajshahi metropolitan Swechchhasevak League member and businessman Robi was stated to be in critical condition. Clashes spread to the Station Bazaar area, where police and RAB rushed.
The Dhaka-Rajshahi highway has remained closed since the clashes erupted Friday morning, police said.
Courtesy of www.thebangladeshtoday.com
