Chhatra League factions clash in Sylhet, Pabna, Rajshahi; 1 dead, several injured

One person has been killed in a turf war between two factions of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) in Sylhet’s Biyanibazar Govt College while five others injured in similar clashes in Rajshahi’s New Government Degree College.

Two clashing groups of the ruling party's student wing also vandalised Pabna University of Science and Technology on Monday.
 

In Biyanibazar Govt College, Khaled Ahmed Litu, 25, was shot at close range at noon following a clash between supporters of BCL leader Pavel Mahmud and local Swechhasebok League leader Abul Kashem Pallab, witnesses said.

He was rushed to Biyanibazar Upazila Health Complex with bullet wounds where the doctors pronounced him dead, said Sylhet’s Additional Superintendent of Police Sugyan Chakma.

Police have detained three persons over the incident but did not disclose their identities.

The authorities later closed the college until Jul 22 and announced a committee to investigate the matter.

The factional feud of the BCL units often lead to violence in many educational institutions, but this time such clashes were reported from three different institutes in three different cities on a single day.

Monday’s clashes in three districts came on the heel of the vandalism at a hostel of Sylhet’s MC College and the brawl over tender submission at Dhaka’s Jagannath University campus respectively on last Thursday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, MC College authorities have started a case at Shah Paran Police Station against 35 BCL leaders and activists over last week’s vandalism at one of the hostels.

OC Aktar Hossain said the college’s Principal Nitai Chandra Chanda had named 10 of the accused, including BCL leader Titu Chowdhury, in the case.

In Rajshahi, at least five people including a policeman were injured during a clash between two factions of BCL at the New Government Degree College in the afternoon.

Rajpara police OC Hafizur Rahman Hafiz said the supporters of the college’s BCL unit President Mainul Islam Bappy and General Secretary Baitul Hossain Toru had battled it out over the sitting arrangements in a tent at the college compound.

Four Chhatra League activists and a police constable got hurt at the time, he said. Two of them were admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.

In Pabna University of Science and Technology (PUST), two BCL factions had clashed in the morning, leading to the vandalism of institution properties.

The followers of PUST BCL unit President Shahed Siddiqui Shanto and Vice-President Arafat got involved in running battles and hurled bricks around 10am, said Sadar police OC Abdur Razzak.

As panic spread among general students, police later went in and brought the situation under control, he added.

Shanto and Arafat have blamed each other for instigating the clashes.

The university’s Proctor Awal Kabir Joy said they would take legal action against the BCL leaders if they were found guilty.

Meanwhile, in Barisal, the district BCL committee has written to the central committee in Dhaka to confirm the expulsion of Banaripara Upazila unit President Sumon Hossain Molla from the organisation.

Their move came after police arrested Molla for allegedly raping the wife of a local auto-rickshaw driver recently.

[Reporting by bdnews24.com’s Sylhet, Rajshahi, Pabna and Barisal correspondents]