Following the death of a university student in a road accident, hundreds of students of International Islamic University Chittagong (IIUC) blocked the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Kumira area on Tuesday morning. The students torched two buses and vandalised about 50 other vehicles. Police sources said that Nurunnabi Rubel (22), a student of the BBA sixth semester, was run over by a bus of Star Line Paribahan at Sitakunda Bypass area while he was crossing the highway at around 9 am on Tuesday. He died on the spot.
When the news of Rubel’s death arrived at the IIUC campus, the students took to the highway in front of the university campus at Kumira and started vandalising vehicles. They blocked the highway around 9:30 am. Some of them set fire to two buses.
Witnesses said Jamaat-Shibir activists joined the demonstration, as IIUC is a Jamaat-Shibir controlled university, and put up barricades at three other points on the highway.
Within an hour of the blockade at Kumira, Jamaat-Shibir activists, in guise of students, put up blockades at Sitakunda Bypass, Siraj Bhuiyan Rastar Matha and Barabkunda points on the highway and set fire to two other buses and a truck. They also vandalised at least 50 other vehicles at those points.
Some Jamaat-Shibir activists ransacked a few shops in Sitakunda Sadar area. During the vandalism, traders detained five activists and when the detained were being handed over to the police, other activists snatched them away. Later, the Sitakunda Municipality Merchant Association brought out a procession and held a rally in the afternoon, in protest of the vandalism.
The students blocked the highway till the afternoon. After getting assurances from the upazila administration and the university authorities that the driver and the owner of the transport company involved would be given exemplary punishments, they cleared the road around 2:30 pm.
Muhammad Shahin Imran, upazila nirbahi officer of Sitakunda, said, “After holding a meeting with administrative officials, teachers and students of the university, we managed to bring the situation under control. We assured the students that the guilty driver as well as the owner of the bus will be punished,” he said.
Imran told The Independent that the students had lifted the blockade around 2:30 pm. “We also arranged the burial of the deceased without an autopsy,” he added.
Mohammad Bodiuzzaman, officer-in-charge of Sitakunda Police Station, said hundreds of students of IIUC and other educational institutions had put up blockades at four points of the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. “They also set fire to four busses and a truck, and vandalised more than 50 vehicles on the highway”, he added.
When asked about the involvement of Jamaat-Shibir activists, Bodiuzzaman denied any political involvement behind the protest. “We don’t have any information regarding the involvement of Jamaat-Shibir in the protest”, he said, adding that the police will duly investigate the matter.
-With The Independent input
