Clash with transport workers leaves SUST students, hall provost injured

A clash between the students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology or SUST and transport workers on the Sylhet-Sunamganj Road has left many students and a hall provost injured.

Some students blocked the road while demonstrating on campus around 11am on Sunday demanding safety in the backdrop of repeated incidents of mugging.

More than 50 students have been mugged while riding autorickshaw on the road in the last one month, according to protesters.

“We went there and tried to convince the students to clear the roadblock, but some transport workers attacked all of a sudden,” SUST Proctor Zahir Uddin Ahmed has told bdnews24.com adding that some students and Shahporan Hall Provost Ashish Kumar Banik suffered injuries.

But Selim Mia, a local autorickshaw driver, said: “We are not in a state of conflict with the students. They vandalised our vehicles, so some workers got angry and engaged in a clash.”

Jalalabad police OC Shafiqul Islam said the situation was brought under control immediately and traffic movement was normal in the area.

Earlier, 17 students filed general diaries with the police over mugging, OC Shafiqul said.

Sabina Sumaiya Pushpa, a student of public administration at SUST got mugged while travelling with another student on Sunday night. Students claim that police remained reluctant despite the complaints that they filed.

Parvez Ahmed, a student of English at SUST, said while taking part in the demonstration, “We have notified the administration several times, but they remained silent.”

Echoing the protesters, OC Shafiqul said: “We had been unsuccessful but now give us a chance. We will start taking actions against them (muggers) from today.”