Stamford Varsity ex-VC remanded over attack on Shamim

A Dhaka court has remanded former vice-chancellor of Stamford University MA Hannan Feroz in police custody for six days.

Feroz was arrested at his Dhanmondi home early Wednesday morning over the attack on Awami League leader AKM Enamul Haque Shamim, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesperson Masudur Rahman.

He was produced before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Hasibul Haque on Wednesday, where the police sought a 10-day remand to question him.

The court granted a six-day remand rejecting Feroz's bail plea.

"Hannan Feroz is a learned man. He has been educated at Harvard University. He is the guardian of ten thousand students of Stamford University,” Feroz's counsel barrister Rafique Ul Haque said at the hearing.

“This renowned university's operations will collapse due to his arrest. Moreover, his age is not favourable for police custody," he argued.

According to the remand plea, in his confessional statement, Rana Howlader, who has been arrested over the attack, said Feroze was involved in the murder attempt.

Feroz's counsels argued that without identifying the 'feud' between Shamim and Feroz, his arrest based on ‘an unreliable source' was unfair and a violation of human rights.

Shamim, a former president of the ruling party's student affiliate Bangladesh Chhatra League, is one of the members of the university's Board of Trustees. The Board is headed by Feroz.

AL Central Working Committee member Shamim survived the attack on Jun 19. He was shot at soon after he left his Dhanmondi-10 house.

Three miscreants, mounted on a motorcycle, shot him on his left arm while he was in his car.

Law enforcers earlier had arrested seven persons in connection with the attack.