Around 500 sued over clash between RU students, locals

Staff Reporter :
The authorities of the Rajshahi University (RU) have filed a case against more than 500 unnamed people in connection with Saturday’s clash between RU students and local businessmen.
RU Registrar Abdus Salam filed the case with Motihar Police Station on Sunday.
Meanwhile, RU students set fire on rail line beside the Fine Arts Institute and started demonstration at 8:00pm, Rail movement between Dhaka and Rajshahi has been suspended.
On the other hand, the leaders of various student organisations active on the campus sat in discussion with the Vice-Chancellor to decide what to do about the situation.
However, RU students on Sunday blocked the Dhaka-Rajshahi highway to protest the ‘attack on them by local people and police’ on Saturday night. Over 200 people were injured in the clash.
Members of Special Weapons and Tactics have so far been deployed on the highway to control the situation. Apart from it, seven platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have been deployed in the Binodpur area.
Meanwhile, police have arrested a person in a case filed by RU administration following Saturday’s clash between students and locals.
The arrestee is Taslim Ali alias Peter, 45, a businessman, said Rafiqul Alam, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police.
Taslim was arrested after the university administration filed a case against around 500 unidentified people with Motihar Police Station. The case was filed accusing the unidentified people of beating, assaulting and injuring students, he added.
The RU authorities have suspended all classes and examinations for the next two days following Saturday’s clash.
Earlier on the day, a number of journalists, including a reporter and a cameraperson of Channel 24, were injured in an attack carried out by the protesting students while they were covering the incident yesterday morning. Our Rajshahi Correspondent reports: students staged a demonstration in front of the administration building of the university and locked the building protesting at last night’s clash involving local people of Binodpur and the students of Rajshahi University on Sunday morning.
The protesting students chanted slogans with their six-point demands, calling for justice.
The demands are justice for the attack on RU students by local people and police, stopping the entry of outsiders on the university campus and ensuring safety of the students, ensuring on-campus accommodation for all students, ensuring proper treatment of the injured students, taking necessary measures within 24 hours of the incident, and ensuring student representation in forming university policies.
According to the university sources, agitated students staged a sit-in protest in front of the Senate Building after holding a protest march on the campus to talk with the authorities.
Later, they blocked the vice-chancellor Professor Golam Shabbir Sattar, the pro-vice-chancellor Professor Md Sultan-Ul-Islam, and Professor M Humayun Kabir for two hours in front of Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Senate building.
RU VC Professor Golam Sabbir Sattar urged the students to stop the demonstration. However, the agitating students rejected his request and asked him to solve the issue.
Amanullah Khan, a student of population science and human resource development department of the university, said, ‘Police were inactive during the incident, rather they threw tear gas shells and fired rubber bullets at us. Taking advantage of their inaction, local thugs attacked us. The agitation will continue if our demands are not met.’
At that time, he demanded the resignation of the university’s proctorial body and student advisor.