Chhatra Dal, Shibir infiltrating student movement for safe roads: Home minister

Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and Islami Chhatra Shibir are trying to change the course of the student movement for safe roads to cause violence, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has claimed.

The minister reiterated his call upon the protesters to return home citing mesures to meet their demands following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s orders at a news briefing as the demonstrations blocking streets in Dhaka rolled into the fifth day on Thursday.

He also called for the help of the guardians and parents of students to calm the movement triggered by deaths of two students in a road crash on the Airport Road on Sunday.

Admitting that the protesters’ demands are reasonable, he said the government noticed political motivation in the agitation.

Kamal claimed that they had audio clips of conversations between JCD and Shibir leaders ordering their activists to get involved in the student movement by wearing uniform.

JCD is the student front of the BNP while Shibir is the Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing.

“This movement can turn violent,” he warned the protesters. “We’ve seen that the Kafrul Police Station came under attack. Stones were pelted at Razarbagh (police lines) and Public Order Management (offices) in Mirpur.”

Asked about the attack on students by police and pro-government youths at Mirpur-14 on Thursday afternoon, Kamal said locals protested there when Chhatra Dal activists attacked the police.

The protesters smashed 317 vehicles and torched eight others, according to him.

“So, we urge the students to discontinue the movement,” he added.

Seeking the guardians’ help, the minister said, “We think the people have seen that the students have courage. But there can be acts of sabotage now.”    

“So I request the guardians, teachers and neighbours of the students and the governing bodies of educational institutions to persuade the innocent to not hit the streets again,” he said.

The minister promised not to take any step against the protesters after the end of the movement.

According to him, the prime minister has ordered installation of speed-breakers and posting traffic police in front of every educational institution.

The authorities were building a footbridge at Kurmitola where the two students were run over and killed by a bus, he said.

He also said the new transport law with tough punishment for errant drivers would shortly be placed in parliament for passage.

A ‘quarter with vested interest’ is trying to mislead the students by playing with their emotions, RAB Director General Benazir Ahmed said at a separate news briefing.   

He said they ‘appreciate’ the emotions of the overwhelmed students, but urged the guardians to be alert so that no-one can mislead the protesters.