Bangladesh Students Are Protesting Again, But This Time Against Each Other
At least 50 people were taken for treatment after the skirmish.Dhaka:
Over 150 students were injured in Bangladesh during clashes at a university campus thi
Conflicts on a university campus in Bangladesh this week injured more than 150 students, indicating deep divisions between factions that helped spark the national uprising that resulted in the overthrow of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after 15 years in power. According to reports, the issue of prohibiting student politics on the university campus caused a clash between student organizations supporting various political ideologies at Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KEUT) in the southwest of the country.
The violence started Tuesday afternoon when the Jatiyotabadi Chatro Dol (JCD), the youth wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), attempted to recruit students at KUET. Members of Students Against Discrimination (SAD), a protest organization that spearheaded the rebellion that overthrew former Premier Hasina in August of last year, confronted him over this.At least 50 people were taken for treatment after the skirmish, Khulna police officer Kabir Hossain told news agency AFP.
“The situation is now under control, and an extra contingent of police has been deployed,” he added.
Footage of the violence showing rival groups wielding scythes and machetes, along with injured students being carted to hospital for treatment, was widely shared on Facebook.
Student Groups Blamed Each Other
Both groups blamed the other for starting the violence, with the BNP student wing chief Nasir Uddin Nasir accusing members of Student Against Discrimination and Bangladesh Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, of initiating the recent attack and agitating the situation to force a confrontation.
Jamaat activists “created this unwarranted clash”, he told AFP.
Local student Obayed Ullah told AFP that the JCD had defied a decision by the campus to remain free of activities by established political parties. He added that there was “no presence” of Jamaat on campus.
The incident provoked outrage among students elsewhere in the country, with a protest rally held late Tuesday night to condemn the BNP’s youth wing at Dhaka University.
