CU train services resume
Students of Chittagong University (CU) protest on a railway platform in the port city yesterday after railway staff stayed away from operating the CU campus-bound shuttle trains following abduction of a shuttle train driver allegedly by Islami Chhatra Shibir activists of the university on Monday.Photo: STAR
The shuttle train services to Chittagong University (CU) from the port city have resumed after a meeting between the authorities of the university and Bangladesh Railway yesterday. The services resumed at 1:20pm. However, no classes in the university were held because of very thin presence of students. On Monday, staff of the shuttle trains refrained from operating the trains following abduction of a train driver allegedly by activists of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami backed student organisation Islami Chhatra Shibir. A team of CU authorities led by Assistant Proctor Rezaul Karim met with AKM Mahbubul Alam, divisional railway manager (DRM) in Chittagong, at the latter's office around 11:00am, said Mohammad Ali, general secretary of Bangladesh Railway Running Staff and Workers' Union. Earlier, around 300 railway staff and workers brought out a procession demanding security of the shuttle trains staff at about 10:00am in Parhartali area in the Chittagong city. The drivers agreed to operate the trains after the CU authorities gave them assurance of ensuring security, Mohammad Ali said. The running of the trains would stop again in case of any security problem, said Nazrul Islam, a locomotive inspector of the railway. Gopal Chandra Das, a driver of the CU campus-bound shuttle train, was allegedly abducted by the CU Shibir activists around 7:50am on Monday amid an indefinite student strike enforced by the pro-Jamaat student organisation. He, however, was released after six hours. Two separate cases were filed with Government Railway Police (GRP) station on charge of attacking the GRP policemen and abducting the train driver on Monday. Three members of the police were injured in the incident. The GRP police filed a case accusing around 40 to 50 people while the Railway authorities filed another case accusing about 20 to 25 people, said Abu Taher Khan, officer-in-charge of GRP station. He, however, could not mention the identities of the accused.
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