Cops release 3 DU students after quizzing

Law enforcers today released three students of Dhaka University around nine hours after they were handed over to the Shahbagh Police Station by a group of activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League.

Meanwhile, students of Rajshahi University (RU), and Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (Cuet) today staged demonstrations at their respective university campuses condemning the attacks on the student protesters across the country demanding safe roads.

At DU, some BCL activists of Fazlul Huq Muslim (FH) Hall unit of DU beat up Tariqul Islam of Mathematics, Mashiur Rahman Sadik of Information and Communication Technology and Zobaidul Haque Rony of Physics departments in the wee hours today, allegedly for spreading rumours on Facebook, reports our DU correspondent..

Rony is an activist of Samajtantrik Chhatra Front while the two others appear to have no political affiliation.

Organising Secretary Md Rakib, and activists Sufi, Shameem and Nayeem of the BCL hall unit called the trio at around 1:00am and took them to the hall’s guestroom, one of the victims said seeking anonymity.

“The BCL men then switched of the lights inside the room and started quizzing us over some of our Facebook posts after browsing through our Facebook accounts. At one stage, they started beating us with sticks and stamps which continued till the Fajr prayer and later they handed us over to the police at around 6:00am,” the victim alleged.

As the news spread overnight, a section of DU students including some leaders of left leaning student organisations started a demonstration in front of DU proctor’s office at around 2:00pm, demanding release of the trio.

The proctor came out of his office after some time and took ten minutes from the protestors. He then contacted with the Shahbagh Police Station and assured the agitating students of getting the detainees released.

Then the students marched towards the police station chanting slogans and received the detainees after the law enforcers released them.

“Those three students were taken to the police station after taking permission from the authorities for quizzing,” DU Proctor Prof AKM Golam Rabbani told the reporters at his office.

They were released after being quizzed by the law enforcers, he added.

At RU, around 600 students brought out a protest procession at their university campus.

Around 200 students of RU Law Department brought out a silent procession around 11:00am from in front of the central library condemning the recent attack on students, our RU correspondent reports from the spot.

Another 400 students under the banner of “Students Against Oppression” from different departments of the university joined the procession at 12:00pm.

Together they chanted slogans and paraded through different streets within the campus before ending the procession at the same place at 1:00pm.

The students strongly condemned the attacks on student protesters and demanded removal of Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan.

They also demanded immediate release of the students who were detained during the movement for safe roads.

Students of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (Cuet) hold a sit-in programme before the Central Shaheed Minar premises inside the university campus on tuesday, August 7, 2018. Photo: Abdullah Abbas

At Cuet, students held a sit-in programme at 1:30pm before the Central Shaheed Minar premises inside the university campus.

Around 200 students from different departments took part in the sit-in proramme, our CU correspondent reports from the spot.