By IANS
Dhaka : Agitating students and teachers of Dhaka University Tuesday battled the police across the campus and burnt an effigy of the army chief, Gen. Moin U. Ahmed, to vent their anger over being thrashed by army personnel during a football match.
Over 150 students and teachers and four policemen were injured in the clashes, Star Online reported.
Several places on the campus like the Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) and the Registrar’s Building virtually turned into battlegrounds as the police and students clashed.
Violence spread outside the campus too and students burnt a number of vehicles at the city’s prominent Shahbag intersection. Army jeeps were also torched.
Bangladesh, which has been under a national emergency since January, witnessed its first indefinite strike Tuesday to protest the clashes.
The country’s interim government is widely perceived to be army-backed.
The angry students took out processions and chanted slogans against the caretaker government and the army, The Daily Star website said. They also burnt an effigy of the army chief in front of the vice chancellor’s residence.
The university’s girl students also took out a procession to protest Monday’s police action.
Media reports Tuesday said acting Vice Chancellor A.F.M. Yusuf Haider and Proctor Aka Firowz Ahmed were among those injured in clashes that began at the football ground and continued till late Monday evening.
More than 50 students were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and the Dhaka University Medical Centre while four others were detained at an army camp on the campus, The Daily Star said.
A ban on political activity is in force due to the national emergency. However, violence erupted Monday in Dhaka University, the traditional nerve centre of politics, over an exchange of words between students watching a football match and some army personnel who felt some students were deliberately blocking their view of the game.
The army personnel were part of a makeshift army camp set up in the university’s gymnasium to oversee law and order on the campus. Media reports said the students have been sore about being denied use of the gymnasium and are demanding the camp be dismantled.
In the midst of the clashes, the university officials went to the football ground for discussions with the army camp’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Huda.
The officer apologised for the incident and assured the officials that action would be taken against those responsible. The students did not accept this and demanded that the officer apologise in public, The Daily Star said.
As the clashes continued, the university officials were also roughed up.
The army’s chief of general staff, Maj. Gen. Sina Ibne Jamali visited the Dhaka Medical college Hospital to inquire about the injured students but had to beat a hasty retreat in the face of angry protests by the students.
He returned around midnight with several army personnel and five vehicles, including an army ambulance.
Said Jamali: “Our law is very strict. If any one is found guilty, strict measures will be taken against that person.”
According to Jamali, action would also be taken against those responsible for exacerbating the incident. The army had already constituted an inquiry committee, he added.
Asked whether the army camp will be removed from the campus, Jamali said: “We will definitely consider what the students have to say. We will respect their sentiments,” New Age newspaper quoted him as saying.