Police Excesses Protested in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Bangladeshi Dhaka University students, with their mouths covered, protest against a police crackdown in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, May 29, 2005.

At least 100 people, mostly university students, were injured when police used batons, rubber bullets and tear gas Saturday to disperse angry mobs who attacked and smashed vehicles to protest the death of an university student in a road accident in Dhaka.

Teachers, Students in Dhaka, Bangladesh Protested Police Excesses

IDhaka University teachers and students on Saturday strongly protested police excesses on the campus after the death of a girl student in a road accident, reports UNB.

Police swung into action on the students as they were agitating after Shammi Akhter Happy, a third year student of Psychology department, was run over by a minibus at the city's Shahbag crossing.

Dhaka University Teachers' Association (DUTA) strongly denounced police for their attacks on the students and demanded that Happy's family be properly compensated.

The DUTA leaders urged the government to bring driver of the killer bus to justice and cancel all route permits of the bus owner and punishment of the police responsible for attacks on the students.

The DUTA's demands came from its executive committee's emergency meeting held tonight with its president Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique in the chair.

Meanwhile, students of Fine Arts Faculty called an indefinite student strike in their institute.

Different student bodies, including Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and its allies, Samajtantrik Chattra Front, a left-leaning student organisation, will bring out separate processions today (Sunday) at 10am on the campus.

Progressive Student Alliance, comprising seven left-leaning student bodies, will lay a siege to the VC office tomorrow demanding immediate steps to ensure security of the students on the campus.

The student organisations demanded compensation to the victim's family and resignation of DU Proctor Dr AKA Firouz as he failed to ensure safety of the students. BCL and its allies urged the students to observe today (Sunday) 'Protest Day'.

Source: UNB

The Previous Day's Student Protests (May 28, 2005)

At least 50 people were injured when students at the main university in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka battled police and damaged vehicles after a female student was killed in a road accident.

Police used batons and fired blanks and teargas shells to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing students who set several vehicles on fire and damaged dozens of others, witnesses said.

The city's Shahbag area, in which two large hospitals are located, "turned into a fierce battle zone for hours after the girl was crushed under wheels of a speeding bus near the Dhaka University campus", a Reuters witness said.

"Waves of students came out of the university and started a rampage, forcing the hospitals to close their gates with panicked patients and visitors stranded inside," Reuters Television cameraman Rafiqur Rahman said.

"This accident was partly due to negligence by traffic police, who often ignore rash driving by the buses," a student leader said.

Source: Agence France-Presse