By IANS
Dhaka : The Bangladesh Army Tuesday vacated a camp set up in Dhaka University and the government expressed regret over the two-day violence triggered by a clash between students and soldiers stationed in the campus.
Agitated students and teachers battled the police across the campus and outside to vent their anger over being thrashed by army personnel during a football match on Monday.
Earlier on Tuesday, students burnt an effigy of the army chief, Gen. Moin U. Ahmed.
Bangladesh, which has been under a national emergency since January, witnessed its first strike Tuesday to protest the clashes.
The country’s interim government is widely perceived to be army-backed.
Vacation of the camp in Dhaka University’s gymnasium complex began at 2000 hours local time, Star Online said.
The students and teachers, who boycotted classes, demanded that army camps, meant to oversee law and order’s maintenance in the camps, be removed from all educational institutions.
The decision was taken by the advisors’ council that met with Chief Advisor Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair.
The government expressed regret and ordered a judicial inquiry into the Monday incident of a soldier beating students at a football match.
The soldier has been withdrawn and the army has launched an inquiry.
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.
The angry students took out processions and chanted slogans against the caretaker government and the army, The Daily Star website said. They 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.