DHAKA, 4 March 2004 — Angry students, demanding resignation of the home minister for the government’s failure to arrest the attackers of a university professor, clashed with police in and around Dhaka University yesterday, leaving over a hundred students and police injured. Witnesses said police picked up a number of students from near Curzon Hall during the clash that broke out at noon.
The trouble started as students from the campus tried to proceed toward the Secretariat — the seat of the Bangladesh government — to press for the resignation of the home minister.
Police intercepted the students near Shishu Academy and fired at least a hundred tear gas shells to disperse the stone-throwing protesters. Later, police entered the Curzon Hall compound and lobbed tear gas shells on the students, who retaliated with bricks and sticks. Witnesses said fighting erupted as police stopped a march by hundreds of students protesting against the attack by unidentified assailants on Dr. Humayun Azad.
The latest anti-government protests were called by the Bangladesh Students League, the student front of the main opposition Awami League. Witnesses claimed over 50 students were arrested by police.
Azad has been fighting for his life at Dhaka’s military hospital since the assault on Friday night. Hospital officials said his condition had improved slightly, but he needed to stay in intensive care.
Azad, who teaches Bengali literature at the university, was walking on the campus Friday night when unidentified men attacked him with meat cleavers, seriously injuring him in the head and back.
“Police have entered a dormitory and are beating us mercilessly,” a student told Reuters by mobile telephone. He said many students had taken shelter in the dormitory after being chased by police. Police told a different tale.
“They attacked our people with stones...and threatened to take the law into their hands,” said one police officer.
The university’s teachers and students have boycotted classes since Saturday. They have threatened not to return until Azad is discharged and his attackers punished.
