Third body found after clashes between pro-AL activists and quota protesters in Chattogram

Police have identified the dead as two students and a pedestrian

Another body has been found and taken to the hospital amid clashes between activists of pro-Awami League organisations and quota protesters in Chattogram, taking the death toll from the violence to three.

The deaths occurred amid a series of clashes from the port city’s Muradpur to the Sholshahar area on Tuesday, police say.

Initially two bodies were taken to the hospital and another was brought in afterwards, according to Kazi Tarek Ahmed, additional deputy commissioner (public relations) of Chattogram Metropolitan Police.

The third body is that of a student but law enforcers have yet to confirm his name and identity, he said.

The two victims previously brought to the hospital have been identified. One was Wasim Akram, a third-year student of the Department of Social Sciences at Chittagong College. He hailed from Cox’s Bazar’s Pekua Upazila. The second is Md Faruk, a pedestrian.

Idris Ali, the acting head of the Chattogram Metropolitan BNP Office Cell, says that Wasim was an activist and the joint convenor of the college’s Chhatra Dal unit.

Previously, ADC Tarek had said: “Two bodies have been brought to the hospital. There were signs of injury on the pedestrian’s body, but none on the student’s. Witnesses said they had been brought from the Muradpur and Sholshahar areas.”

Witnesses said that quota protesters attempted to gather at the Sholshahar Rail Station in the afternoon, but activists from various pro-Awami League organisations were already occupying the area.

When the protesters attempted to take up positions near the station, they were attacked by the pro-Awami League activists. They dispersed the quota protesters and fled.

Traffic came to a halt on the road as both sides began throwing volleys of brickbats. Witnesses said sounds of explosions could be heard on the road.