VP Nur, at least 27 followers injured in ‘BCL attacks’ at DUCSU Bhaban

DUCSU VP Nurul Haque Nur and at least 27 of his followers have been injured in attacks after heated arguments with leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League on the campus.

The members of the ruling Awami League's student wing, who work under the banner of Muktijuddho Mancha, were reportedly active during the incident in and outside the DUCSU Bhaban on Sunday afternoon.

But both organisations have denied beating up Nur and the others.

It was the “general students who prevented Nur from staying in the building with outsiders”, the two organisations claimed.

The injured students, including Nur, were admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

DMCH Director Brig Gen AKM Nasir Uddin told reporters around 7:30pm that they treated total 28 people injured in the attacks and 14 of them were admitted.  

One of them, Tuhin Farabi, was kept under observation in the Intensive Care Unit as he was facing problem to breath, Nasir said.

The attackers also vandalised a computer and the furniture at VP Nur’s office in the building.

Nur has come under attack on the campus and in different parts of the country after he defeated the BCL candidate in the DUCSU election in March.

He was the pick of the Bangladesh Council to Protect General Students’ Rights that spearheaded a movement forcing the government to scrap quotas, including for freedom fighters’ descendants, in civil service recruitment.

DU BCL President Sonjit Chandra Das and General Secretary Saddam Hussain, who is also the assistant general secretary of DUCSU, came to the building and some activists of the organisation entered it with them.

Nur argued with Sanjit and Saddam when the BCL leaders demanded that he ask the “outsiders” to leave.

The BCL activists then drove out the members of Nur’s council from his room. While leaving the building, the members of the council were beaten up by stick-wielding activists of BCL and Muktijuddho Mancha.

The attackers entered the building and roughed up Nur and his followers in his room after Sonjit and Saddam left, according to those injured who included the council’s Convenor Hasan Al Mamun and joint convenors Faruk Hossain and Rashed Khan besides Nur.

The attackers took away the hard drive of the building’s security cameras while leaving.

The members of the university’s proctorial team then took Nur and the others to the hospital.

“Let them get treated first. We will take steps later after hearing everyone’s statement,” Proctor Golam Rabbani said.

DUCSU Social Services Secretary Akhtar Hossain, the other member of the council to be elected along with Nur, told the media that at least 40 people came under attack.  

“Some have suffered broken leg and rib, some bleeding from nose and mouth and some are vomiting. Many have been admitted to the ICU. Many are in critical condition. We fear for their return to normal life,” he said.

Muktijuddho Mancha General Secretary Md Al Mamun claimed Nur had tried to destabilise the campus by bringing “goons from outside”.

“The general students went to prevent him. Muktijuddho Mancha has no link to this,” he said.

Asked about the presence of the organisation’s members during the attacks, he said, “Their biggest identity is that they are general students.”   

BCL’s DU unit President Sonjit did not take phone calls for comment, but alleged in a Facebook post that Nur wanted to lunch attack on the campus and destabilise it with Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

“Aware students and the Muktijuddho Mancha gave them a proper answer. There will never be any place for the anti-liberation people on this campus,” he added.

DUCSU AGS Saddam described the incident as a result of hostility between Nur’s group and the Muktijuddho Mancha and denied BCL involvement in the attacks.

“The two groups came faced off against each other twice at the Madhu’s Canteen and the DUCSU Bhaban today after repeated clashes in past few days. We tried to calm them. We urge both sides to settle the issues,” he said.

DUCSU General Secretary Golam Rabbani, who has been expelled by the BCL for extortion and corruption, told reporters: “Nur created anarchy by using DUCSU to conceal his corruption. He sheltered outsiders with locally made weapons today.”

Several student organisations demonstrated on the campus in the afternoon against the attack.