Students of three colleges engage in clashes in capital
Students of three colleges of the capital have been engaging in sporadic clashes in different areas for the last three days, hampering academic activities in the educational institutions and creating panic among the city dwellers.
The clashes left some 13 students injured and police detained 12 students from different areas in this connection yesterday. However, the specific reason behind the clashes could not be identified yet.
The colleges are Dhaka City College in Dhanmondi Road 2 and Birshreshtha Munshi Abdur Rouf Rifles College and Bir Shreshtha Noor Mohammad Rifles Public School and College inside Pilkhana of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) headquarters.
Principals of five colleges held a meeting in Dhaka College yesterday to form 10-member teams from each college to monitor activities in areas adjoining the colleges.
Dhaka City College Principal Prof Md Shahjahan Khan told The Daily Star that he suspected the clashes to have originated on September 9 from a dispute over sharing of money of a snatched cellphone.
The dispute was between a few students of Dhaka City College and the Noor Mohammad college. The latter were joined by the Munshi Abdur Rouf college students, he said.
The students of the three institutions called over their friends in different educational institutions in nearby areas to join them, he said, adding, “We suspect that a gang of criminals as well as students of other colleges are involved.”
Dhanmondi Police Station Sub-Inspector Shariful Islam suspected that the clashes originated over getting bus seats.
Police and Dhaka City College sources said some students from the Noor Mohammad college hacked the gate of Dhaka City College with sharp weapons on September 10.
Five of them were caught and assaulted by Dhaka City College students and staff, said the sources.
In the following two days, students of Dhaka City College started assaulting students of the two Pilkhana colleges and vice versa in different areas including Jigatola Bus Stand, in front of the BGB gate and Dhaka City College and Dhanmondi 15.
The students mainly targeted their opponents in buses, dragging them down and giving them a beating before disappearing suddenly just as they came, said witnesses.
Yesterday the students of the Pilkhana colleges assaulted four Dhaka City College students in Elephant Road, Jigatola Bus Stand, Dhanmondi 15 and in front of the BGB gate.
In response, Dhaka City College students assaulted two students of the Munshi Abdur Rouf college.
Dhanmondi Police Station Officer-in-Charge Anwar Hossain said additional police were deployed in different areas to avert further clashes.
The area monitoring teams would come from Dhaka City College, the Pilkhana colleges, Dhaka College and Ideal College.
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