Only victims of beatings arrested at RU, investigation to ‘mob violence’ demanded

Two of the three students who were beaten by the leaders of Rajshahi University Central Students’ Union (RUCSU) and Islami Chhatra Shibir have been shown arrested in a case of banned Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) terrorist activities. 

They were shown arrested in a case filed by Shah Makhdum Police Station in the city on Monday night. 

Meanwhile, leaders and activists of the campus’s active student organisations have called Monday’s incident “mob violence” and demanded justice. 

The university authorities have formed a five-member committee to investigate the incident in its entirety.

The arrestees are Md Anas and Mahmudul Hasan, students of the university’s History department for the 2017-18 academic year.

Confirming the matter, Rajshahi Metropolitan Police spokesman Deputy Police Commissioner Gaziur Rahman told Daily Samakal on Tuesday afternoon that the two students were shown arrested in a previous case filed regarding the BCL’s terrorist activities. 

The case mentions that the two were accused in the investigation of the presence of a banned organisation in a case filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act. Both of them are currently undergoing treatment.

Earlier, last Sunday, Mohsin Alam, a student of the Sanskrit department, was accused of intimidating a student of the same department and threatening to leave the campus after she rejected his proposal of love. 

The student filed a written complaint about the incident with the university’s proctor last Sunday night. After the complaint, the proctor, Professor Mahbubur Rahman, held a meeting with the accused in his office. 

Anas, Hasib, a student of the Islamic History and Culture department, and Mahmudul Hasan, a student of the Sanskrit department, were present in the meeting on behalf of Mohsin Alam. At one stage of denying the allegations, they got into a heated argument with the proctor.

Another meeting was held at the proctor’s office on Monday afternoon regarding the matter. In the meeting, some leaders including RUCSU general secretary Salahuddin Ammar accused Anas of being an activist of the banned BCL. At that time he was beaten up after a picture taken with some BCL leaders was shown on his mobile phone. 

Later the matter was temporarily resolved and everyone was moved out of the proctor’s office.

Then the students were accused of going to the RUCSU office and attacking RUCSU leaders. After this incident they were chased from the RUCSU building and took a position in front of the reading room of the university’s central library. Later RUCSU and RU unit of Shibir leaders attacked them and beat them several times. In this incident, when Anas and Mahmudul were taken to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital for treatment, Shibir leaders and activists surrounded the vice-chancellor’s office and took a stand. 

Meanwhile, RU unit of BCL leaders and activists took a counter stance by calling Shibir’s beating a terrorist act and chanting slogans against Shibir.

Later, the university authorities formed a five-member committee on Tuesday to investigate Monday’s incident and the incident of violence against women. The committee has been given ten working days to investigate and submit a report. 

Later, at 12:30 pm, the investigation committee formed visited the reading room of the central library.

The investigation committee was formed with Professor Dr Md Rezaul Karim of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as the convener. 

The other members of the committee are Professor Dr Md Golam Sadiq of the Department of Pharmacy, Professor Dr Md Asadul Haque of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Professor Dr Md Ariful Islam of the Department of Philosophy and Professor Dr A Naeem Farooqui of the Department of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

Meanwhile, after Monday’s incident, that reading room of the central library of the university has been closed. Fifty former and current students who are looking for jobs regularly study in the library since dawn. 

However, after Monday’s incident they returned to the library today. It was seen on the spot that students were giving bags of serial at the library gate like every day this morning. However, knowing the decision not to open the gate, some studied in the library next door, while others studied in the discussion room on the second floor.

The Gonotantrik Chhatra Jote, the front of the active student organisations on campus, has protested and demanded a fair trial for the incident of beating up the leaders and activists of the student organisations RUCSU and Shibir by entering the proctor’s office and the central library as “mob violence”. 

At the same time, the organisation has demanded a fair investigation into the attack on the RUCSU building by the BCL. They made this demand in a notice sent by the convener of the Gonotantrik Chhatra Jote, Nasim Sarkar, last night. 

In addition, the leaders and activists of the RU unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) have demanded an investigation into the incident and punishment of the guilty.

The university unit of JCD has protested in front of the administration building demanding justice for the leaders of RUCSU and Shibir in the beating incident. At that time the president of JCD of RU unit, Sultan Ahmed Rahi, said: “The library and the university are safe places for students. Yet terrorists attacked the Shibir there today. In that attack they attacked the ‘Gupto Shibir’ along with those who used to be BCL. The responsibility of maintaining law and order in the university lies with the proctor, yet they were attacked first in the proctor’s office. Every guilty person should be brought to justice through proper investigation, so that no hypocritical organisation can disrupt the safety of any student’s life by creating a ‘mob’ like this.”

The notification sent by the Gonotantrik Chhatra Jote mentioned that three people were tortured in the presence of the proctor over the allegation of an attack on the RUCSU building by the BCL. Without facing legal proceedings, the way in which these people were later brutally beaten in public inside the central library, one of the most important places for university students, cannot be a picture of a healthy and democratic campus. This barbaric incident has spread extreme panic among ordinary students and the normal learning environment of the university has been severely disrupted.

Stating that no student organisation has the jurisdiction to prosecute any crime, the notice said this culture of taking the law into one’s own hands is destroying the dream of a free and safe campus that students had dreamed of after the fall of fascism. They have demanded an investigation and trial of the attack on the RUCSU building by the BCL, as well as the identification of the people responsible for the mob violence in RUCSU and Shibir and immediate exemplary punishment, and ensuring the safety of ordinary students and restoring a normal and fear-free environment for studying in the entire campus, including the central library.