BCL men throw principal into pond

A group of Bangladesh Chhatra League activists threw the principal of Rajshahi Polytechnic Institute into a pond on the campus today for not allowing two of them to take part in examinations.

Principal Engineer Farid Uddin Ahmed, however, manged to swim ashore.

A CCTV video footage provided by the authority of the institute shows that a group of eight people were dragging the principal by holding his hands, neck and pushing him from his back into the pond.

Ahmed said a group of dis-collegiate students including two masked attackers led by the institute unit BCL Joint Secretary Kamal Hossain Sourav orchestrated the incident as he did not allow them to take part in the exams.

“My life would have ended up had I been not known how to swim,” he told journalists at his office this afternoon.

He alleged that the BCL men often go to him with illogical, ethically unsupportable demands.

Ahmed said, the incident took place around 2:00pm when he was going to his office after offering Jhar prayers at the mosque on its campus.

Sourav intercepted him near the pond and told him to go aside for a talk and suddenly they started dragged me toward the pond and then threw me into the pond,” he said.

According to the college principal and other teachers, the institute authority did not allow two students attending their examinations as they have not their required presence in classes.

Sourav went to the principal pleading him for allowing those students, they said.

When contacted, Golam Mostafa, OC of Chandrima Police Station in the city, said, the principal was attacked as the authority did not allow two students to pass an examination where they failed to pass.

“We have identified the students who attacked the principal. We’re trying to arrest them,” he said.

Later, Principal Engineer Farid Uddin Ahmed filed a case against 57 persons including seven BCL men with the police station.

Contacted, the institute unit of BCL President Mehedi Hasan said only one of the attackers was a BCL man. He confirmed presence of Sourav among the attackers and he said he could not identify any other of the attacker to belong to the student front.

“We will take organisational steps against Sourav. If we can find out any other of the attackers belonging to our party, we will take action against them. Certainly, the police will take their actions,” he said.

Meanwhile, police detained 25 students of the institute from different messes tonight, said OC Golam Mostafa.

After seeing the video footage, action will be taken against those who are involved in the incident, he added.