More than 100 people were injured at Dhaka University Wednesday when the police and activists of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal on Wednesday swooped on students demonstrating for resignation or removal of the home minister.
The separate attacks by the law enforcers and the JCD activists sparked resentment among student organisations of the opposition camp.
The Progressive Students’ Alliance, a combine of eight left-leaning organisations, called a nationwide student strike today.
Examinations of the Secondary School Certificate, which start today, have, however, been kept outside the purview of the strike.
The Dhaka University administration has, meanwhile, suspended examinations, scheduled for Thursday and Saturday.
At least six journalists were also assaulted on the campus during the attacks. A group of JCD activists roughed up Firoz Chowdhury, a photojournalist of the daily Prothom Alo and broke his camera as he was taking photographs of the violence against the protesters.
The violence erupted when the police attacked a procession of the Protection of Free Thoughts and Resistance against Undemocratic Forces, a newly created platform named after Professor Humayun Azad, near the High Court area.
The procession of mostly general students and cultural activists, led by left-leaning student organisations, was marching towards the Secretariat to lay siege to the Ministry of Home Affairs in demand for resignation of the minister and the state minister for their failure to arrest the masterminds of the attack on Humayun.
The procession was blocked near the High Court Mazar gate by the police, who stood across the road and put up barbed-wire barricades
.
Obstructed and enraged, several hundred students in the procession started pelting brickbats at the law enforcers from the adjacent Curzon Hall area.
The police retaliated, lobbing more than 100 teargas canisters on the agitating students. They also stormed academic buildings in the Curzon Hall area, breaking the locks of the entrances, and charged baton on the students.
The police also picked up six central leaders of different student organisations and a general student. The law-enforcers eventually ‘succeeded’ to disperse the agitators almost two hours later.
However, the students reorganised at the Fazlul Haq Hall and started a march towards the administrative building in the Arts Faculty area.
They staged a sit-in in front of the vice-chancellor’s office.
An hour later, some 100 JCD activists, led by its president Shahabuddin Laltu and general secretary Azizul Bari Helal, attacked the demonstrating students and drove them out.
The JCD men, equipped with different types of sticks, took control of the administrative building. At one stage, the JCD president was heard telling his men to ‘search and drive all troublemakers out of the university campus’.
The JCD activists then went around the campus in search of the demonstrators and marched toward the Institute of Fine Art, which they branded as the den of the troublemakers.
They burnt all the symbolic artworks created in protest against the attack on Professor Humayun Azad and attacked a former student of the institute. Newsmen also became victims of the JCD harassment.
The JCD action followed a sudden rumour about Humayun’s death. All the entrances to the DU campus were sealed off at about 2:30pm and the police checked identity of campus-bound people.
Huge contingents of riot police were deployed. Two riot-cars were kept on patrol.
About 20 students and leaders of student organisations were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with severe wounds.
Moinul Huq Chowdhury, a staff reporter Ajker Kagoj, was admitted to the Orthopaedic Hospital and photojournalist Firoz to Samarita Hospital.
Shamsul Huq Tenku, photographer of Bhorer Kagoj, Suman of Ajker Kagoj and Ibrahim of Bhorer Dak were injured during the police action at the Curzon Hall.
Four policemen, including the officer-in-charge of the Ramna Police Station, were also injured during the flare-up.
A police handout, signed by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, said in the evening that ‘the police resorted to mild baton-charge on a group of anarchic miscreants and used teargas to disperse them as they continued anarchy after repeated warnings’.
The police said 13 police personnel were injured by brickbats.
The provost committee of the university in the evening reviewed the campus situation and asked all except resident students to avoid staying at the halls of residence.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Chhatra League, student front of the Awami League, enforced a strike at the university protesting against the attack on Humayun. The BCL held a rally at the Aparajeya Bangla.
Besides, the Dhaka University Teachers Association continued boycotting classes in demand for punishment for those responsible for the attack on Humayun.
The DUTA will go for a token-fasting today at Battala to press home their demands.
Law and order deals with 4 countries soon
EHSANUL HAQUE Bangladesh is set to sign agreements with four more countries on assistance to improve the law and order situation, sources close to top policymakers disclosed to New Age on Wednesday.
Already there is an agreement of this type with the United States and, the sources confirmed, the government is now negotiating deals with China, India, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia for taking assistance of different kinds.
“Having memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with all these countries, we are about to sign contracts with them for greater cooperation in the area of law and order through improvement of the skills of law-enforcing agencies,” said a top official of the home ministry.
Simultaneously, the government is engaged in dialogues with donor agencies, especially the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), for receiving assistance in financing projects for improvement of the performance of law-enforcing agencies. The UNDP has already had elaborate consultations with various stakeholders on the issue.
The donors’ assistance will cover replacement of outdated police equipment like 303 rifles by sophisticated light arms, ,modern training to tackle newer versions of crime and spread awareness of criminology and relevant laws.
Sources further said that the government has been “serious” in bringing reforms in the police and other agencies to deal with the issue of law and order ahead of the upcoming the Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) meeting.
At the moment, the government is facing a three-fold task for improvement of law and order –– (I) to overcome political criticism, (II) to accomplish the reforms pledged by the ruling coalition, and (III) to satisfy the donors and woo their support, said a source, explaining the reasons for seeking external assistance.
Under a “controversial” Dhaka-Washington pact signed last August, a number of US experts are working closely with the Bangladesh Ansar Bahini on how to make its performance effective in the manner of America’s home guards. Some police officials are being sent to the US for higher training to sharpen and enhance their skills.
The ministry of finance had struck a deal with the US authorities in September 2002 for assistance in three key areas –– improvement in law and order, procurement of modern equipment for law-enforcing agencies and combating drug trafficking.
Under the planned agreement with Pakistan, said an official in Dhaka, the Bangladesh police would receive assistance in designing a national highways and motorways police system that will be financed by the ADB.
Initially, some 400 officers will be trained for 3 months at an estimated cost of $75 per officer, a Pakistan national newspaper reported last week, saying that the major focus of the programme would be how to deal with crimes on the highways.
Dhaka is negotiating a deal with New Delhi on joint patrol by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and the Border Security Force (BSF) of India to combat cross-border terrorism and trafficking of drugs, women and children.
Exchange of police delegations between the two countries will also be another component of the planned agreement on which Indian High Commissioner Veena Sikri had talks with the home ministry officials recently.
China will assist Bangladesh in improving the public security system while Saudi Arabia will provide monetary support for modernising the law-enforcing.
|
