Dhaka University students demonstrate against RAB ‘detention, assault’ of three peers

Hundreds of Dhaka University students have demonstrated on the campus against the alleged detention and assault of three of their peers by the Rapid Action Battalion or RAB.

Over 300 students, mostly from Surja Sen Hall and Bijoy Ekattor Hall, came out on the streets in front of and near the TSC around 11:30pm on Thursday.

They calmed down around midnight when the university authorities got the three students released. 

Witnesses said the agitating students vandalised some vehicles during the protests. One of bdnews24.com correspondents saw them damaging a car in front of the Bangla Academy.

The demonstrators demanded the ‘detained’ students be immediately released.

 

Citing witness statements, Assistant Proctor Sohel Rana told bdnews24.com the three students on a motorcycle stopped a microbus in the street in front of the Arts Building after it did not let the bike pass.

He said the students asked the driver to get off the microbus.

As the driver did not respond, the students had an argument with the microbus riders before they broke a looking glass, the proctor said.

“There were eight to 10 uniformed RAB personnel on the microbus. They got off the car immediately, beat up the students and dragged them into the vehicle,” he said.

Two of the three students have been identified as Imran Hossain, Organising Secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra League’s Bijoy Ekattor Hall unit, and Tanvir Hossain, Health Secretary of the Bijoy Ekattor Hall unit of the ruling Awami League’s student wing.

A student of Bijoy Ekattor Hall who witnessed the incident told bdnews24.com the RAB members pointed their weapons at the heads of the three students and also at the others who tried to help them.

As the news of the ‘detention’ of the three students spread, their fellow students came out of the halls and started the demonstration.

They vandalised at least three cars, including one of the police, witnesses said.    

The elite force, however denied the allegation of assaulting and detaining the students.

RAB spokesperson Mufti Mahmud Khan told bdnes24.com their personnel had parked a microbus and a car at Kantabon.

Two to three youths, apparently agitated by traffic congestion in the area, smashed a window glass of one of the two vehicles, Khan said.

“When the RAB personnel there asked the youths why they had smashed the glass, the youths identified themselves as Dhaka University students and said they did not know it was a RAB vehicle,” he said.

He claimed the RAB members took away the students to ‘discuss the issue’.

“They agreed to repair the glass. We are discussing the matter with them,” he said.

The RAB handed the three students to the university officials around 11:45pm, Assistant Proctor Sohel said.

He said they would demand an explanation from RAB on Sunday as to why they had detained students on the campus.

“They could have informed us if the students did something wrong,” he said.