Bangladesh News

The committee, which was given five days to submit a probe report on the violence of February 9 and 10 on Dhaka Polytechnic Institute campus, hurriedly submitted its findings last evening as higher authorities asked for it.

The committee sources said during their enquiry they found evidence that outsiders (non-students of the institute) were involved in political activities, power and control over the hostels. They said the outsiders were responsible for the violence.

Violent clashes between Islami Chhatra Shibir and Bangladesh Chhatra League left at least 40 students injured between February 9 and 10. The authorities vacated all male students’ dormitories of the institute.

The academic council of the institute soon after the incident formed a three-member committee to probe the incident.

Head of the committee Prof Mahfuzur Rahman Bhuiyan told The Daily Star, “The education secretary asked us at 2:00pm [on Monday] to submit the report by the evening and therefore we had to submit the report.”

Prof Bhuiyan said, “As we did not have enough time, we had to complete it in a hurry. We went to the institute, the damaged dormitories and talked to the injured students who were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital [DMCH] and Islami Bank Hospital.”

He said, “We submitted the report to the principal who took it to the director general of the Department of Education.”

He also said the committee made five recommendations in the report including suspension of all political activities and ousting of outsiders from the campus.

Prof Shamsul Alam, principal of the institute, said they have not made any decision regarding letting students in at the dormitories. The principal blamed both the student organisations.

He told The Daily Star that he filed a general diary (GD) in connection with the violence.

Islami Chhatra Shibir activists were able to gain a strong position at Dhaka Polytechnic Institute with the cooperation of teachers having Jamaat-e-Islami background, sources said.

The principal declined to make any comments regarding the alleged patronisation of Shibir by teachers with Jamaat background.

Probe committee chief Prof Bhuiyan said, “As we did not get enough time, we are not sure whether teachers were involved in the incident and whether they patronised a certain student organisation.”

Sources said a number of teachers, with Jamaat-e-Islami background, including a teacher of civil department, who is also a city committee leader of Jamaat, and another teacher of neighbouring Glass and Ceramics Institute, a rokan of Jamaat, had been patronising Shibir activities.

Sources also say the Shibir activists had been using the mosques of the institute for their political purposes. But the authorities could not stop such activities due to the teachers’ involvement.

Bangladesh Chhatra League and Shibir activists filed cases against each other with Tejgaon Industrial Area Police Station in connection with the violence.

Chhatra League leader Iqbal Hossain filed a case against 15 Shibir activists, including Shahriar, Rahim, Masuk, Yiahia, Pradeep, Zakir, Razu, Rubel and Arif.

Shibir activist Shahriar filed a case against Chhatra League activists Mahbub Alam, Rafiqul Islam, Masudur Rahman, Iqbal, Zakir, Babu and Russel in connection with the violence at the institute.

Bangladesh Polytechnic Teachers Association President Mohd Shamsur Rahman told The Daily Star, “I urge the government to investigate the matter and find out whether the teachers have patronised any student organisation.”