They vandalise classrooms, office of Suhrawardy College over alleged attack on peers
Students from over a dozen colleges across the capital yesterday rampaged through Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College in protest against an alleged attack on their peers from Dr Mahbubur Rahman Mollah College.
They vandalised at least six vehicles at the Suhrawardy College compound and tried to attack Kabi Nazrul Government College but failed to enter the campus in Old Dhaka.
At least 30 people were injured amid a chase and counter-chase between two groups hurling brick chunks at each other.
The protesters also attacked Dhaka National Medical College Hospital, where Mollah College student Avijit died on November 18 due to alleged negligence. The demonstrators vandalised the gate and glasses of the hospital.
The protesters alleged that students of Suhrawardy College and Kabi Nazrul College attacked Mollah College students during a demonstration on November 21 over Avijit's death.
This correspondent witnessed that several thousand students, including from Mollah College, Dhaka College, City College and Notre Dame College, gathered in front of the hospital again yesterday noon, protesting the death of Avijit and attack on their previous demonstration.
Photo: Collected
The gathering stretched to Kabi Nazrul College. At one stage, the protesting students tried to break into the college but could not.
The protesters attacked Suhrawardy College after a small group of students of the college tried to chase the demonstrators away from in front of Kabi Nazrul College around 1:00am.
Panic spread inside Suhrawardy College as honours first-year exams of the seven colleges affiliated with Dhaka University were ongoing there.
The protesters vandalised three motorcycles, a car, a microbus, and an ambulance parked on the college campus.
They damaged the classroom and office furniture as the rampage continued until around 5:00pm.
Talking to The Daily Star, a Mollah College student said at that time, "The students of the two colleges [Suhrwardy and Kabi Nazrul] attacked us. We will give them a befitting reply."
As the protesting students left the area around 5:30pm, the students of Kabi Nazrul and Suhrawardy colleges got united and attacked St Gregory's High School & College, witnesses said. The assailants damaged the institution's entrance, suspecting its students joined the attack on Suhrawardy College.
Speaking to The Daily Star, Suhrawardy College Principal Prof Kakali Mukhopadhyay alleged that the local authorities did not cooperate to protect the college.
"A national institution has been greatly damaged when public exams were going on. We don't know why the attack was carried out.
"Before we could apprehend anything, we saw on CCTV that a lot of boys and girls had come. They broke the gate and vandalised everything at will," she said.
"They vandalised cars and office rooms. They released the gas line. Can they really be students? Students cannot be so violent."
Md Jasim Uddin, Lalbagh Division deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said the Mollah College students launched the protests after the death of Avijit while undergoing treatment at the hospital.
The hospital authorities formed a probe committee and assured the protesters of taking disciplinary action if any negligence was found, but the students continued the protests, he said.
