RU arms show: No arrests yet

No members of the pro-government Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) have been arrested over the past one and a half years despite being often seen openly brandishing firearms and other weapons on the Rajshahi University campus.

SM Nadim Mahmud, RU Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 3 Feb 2014, 03:45 PM
Updated : 3 Feb 2014, 08:12 PM

Over 50 students of Rajshahi University and several journalists were injured on Sunday.
Armed activists of the Awami League’s student wing, equipped with firearms and backed by police, attacked the students protesting against fee hikes and evening-shift master's courses.

The authorities on Sunday night closed the university indefinitely, ordering the resident students to vacate the hostels by 8am on Monday.

Photos published in newspapers and video clips telecast by TV channels show BCL leaders and activists standing alongside the law-enforcing agencies and shooting at the agitating students.

But the police have steadfastly claimed that they had not been able to identify the accused.

None has yet been arrested in connection with Sunday’s incident.

“We’re trying to identify the attackers with the help of video footage,” Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) Commissioner Mahbubur Rahman told bdnews24.com.

The university unit Chhatra League’s organising secretaries Shamsuzzaman Emon, Al-Galib and Foysal Ahmed Runu, joint general secretaries Mahbubur Rahman Palash and Nasim Ahmed Setu, Environment Affairs Secretary Mustakin Billah and another leader, Sudipta Salam, were seen wielding firearms on the campus on Sunday.

Rahman dismissed the protesting students’ claim that the BCL activists were backed by the police.

“The police weren’t there beside the attackers,” he told bdnews24.com on Monday.

The BCL activists had been seen brandishing firearms on the campus earlier on Sept 10, 2012, when they had attacked a rally of the BNP’s student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal.

The then BCL Vice-President of the university unit Akhtaruzzaman Takim, Organising Secretary Towhid Al Tuhin and several others were then seen with guns.

On Oct 2 the same year, five BCL leaders were seen wielding guns in a clash with the Islami Chhatra Shibir, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s student front.

The photographs published in the media revealed BCL activists shooting at the Shibir supporters in the presence of the police.

Nurul Islam Nahid, the then education minister, had instructed former Vice-Chancellor Prof Abdus Sobhan to take steps to arrest the gun-totting students.

But none was arrested despite the minister’s orders.

RU BCL leader Touhid Al Tuhin is seen with a gun in hand in this file photo.

On Mar 13, 2013, a group of BCL men ransacked the Physics Department while protesting against disciplinary action taken against BCL leader Nasim Ahmed Setu, a student of that department.
Setu himself had joined the vandalism.
Daily Shokaler Khobor photojournalist Azahar Uddin was physically assaulted by the BCL activists while trying to take photographs.
On July 18, 2012, BCL activist Sohel Rana was killed when two BCL factions exchanged fire over the collection of funds for construction of the Padma bridge.
CPB’s student affiliate Bangladesh Chhatra Union’s RU unit President Ayatollah Khomeini, also the coordinator of the current movement, held the local administration responsible for the open display of guns by BCL men.
“The duties of the university’s student organisations are to stand up for students’ interest. But they (BCL men) have created such a panic with guns that the general students are afraid of them.”
But Vice Chancellor Prof Mohammad Nizamuddin refuted the allegations of provoking the armed BCL leaders and activists.
“One should be punished if they commit any crime. It’s shameful for students to adopt terror tactics. We’ll take steps academically against the students found involved in the attacks.”
Chhatra League’s RU unit General Secretary Towhid Al Tuhin told bdnews24.com: “The leaders and activists usually don’t get involved in such fracas. Our activists only put up resistance if they are attacked.”
Terming Sunday’s incident ‘unexpected’, he said, “We’ve made recommendations to our central committee to expel the leaders and activists involved in the incident.”
After the murder of Sohel Rana in 2012, several BCL leaders and activists, including Tuhin, were expelled. However, the expulsion was reverted within a few months.