Backed by Awami League’s Obaidul Quader, BCL wants ‘VC office attackers’ expelled

The Bangladesh Chhatra League or BCL has urged Dhaka University to expel ‘VC office attackers’—apparently spurred by a senior Awami League leader’s statement that it was the ‘duty’ of its student affiliate activists to rescue the besieged vice-chancellor.

Staff Correspondentand Dhaka University Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 24 Jan 2018, 01:57 PM
Updated : 24 Jan 2018, 01:59 PM

“Will the general students just look away while they barge into the VC’s office? They may be Chhatra League activists, but before everything else, they are students,” the ruling party’s General Secretary Obaidul Quader told the media on Wednesday.

He, however, said the BCL activists should not be spared if they were offenders, but added: “Those who broke into the VC’s office should also be punished.”

Questioning the demonstration protesting the Jan 15 attacks by BCL on students, Quader, a former BCL president himself, said they vandalised the VC office’s entrance. “Is it a democratic way at all to demonstrate?”

Nearly 1,500 BCL activists demonstrated on the campus to press their demand for the expulsion of students, who “attacked” the VC’s office.

The student body issued a 24-hour deadline for the university authorities to oust students involved in ‘harassing the VC’ and ‘assaulting female BCL activists’.

Bangladesh Chhatra League activists demonstrate on the Dhaka University campus on Wednesday to protest alleged attacks on the vice-chancellor’s office a day earlier.

“The Chhatra League will not spare those who spoil the university’s atmosphere,” Dhaka University BCL President Abid Al Hasan said as he led a protest in front of the VC’s office.

The demonstration, under the banner of general students, raised slogans against leftist students.

On Tuesday, protesters of a newly formed alliance of students who identify themselves as an ‘anti-repression group,' marched to the VC’s office. Leftist student leaders were at the forefront of movement.

They broke three collapsible gates leading to VC Md Akhtaruzzaman’s offices and threatened to keep the office under siege until their demands were met.

At least 20 BCL activists led by General Secretary SM Zakir Hossain moved to rescue the vice-chancellor.

They attacked the protesters with iron rods to disperse them before chasing them away and assaulting them soon after at several locations on the campus.