Trader assaulted during student union election at Jagannath University

Several students say the man was assaulted over an alleged attempt at “election engineering”

A trader has been assaulted at the main gate of Dhaka's Jagannath University during voting in the university’s first-ever central students’ union election.

The incident occurred around 9:45am on Tuesday, when Nazrul Islam was attacked by several students amid allegations of “election engineering”.

Witnesses said a group of students chased the man while shouting insults. He was later caught and beaten before police intervened and removed him from the scene.

Recounting the incident, a companion of the victim said: "Nazrul and I were heading towards our shop in Banglabazar. Suddenly, several individuals spotted him, called him an 'old man' and began beating him without any provocation."

Some students present at the scene claimed the man had come to the university’s main gate to interfere with the election process, describing it as “election engineering”. However, they did not explain what they meant by the allegation or how it had been carried out.