Polytechnic students go berserk for 2nd day

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At least 50 people were injured in clashes between students and police for the second day yesterday in Dhaka Polytechnic Institute over a student’s death in road accident the night before.

The authorities suspended classes for an indefinite period and asked the students to leave dormitories by 2:00pm yesterday.

Of those wounded, 20 were students and 26 policemen.

The pitched battles began at around 8:45am and continued at regular intervals for about three and a half hours.

Police charged baton and fired more than 100 tear gas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the agitating students. The protesters responded with hurling brickbats from Latif Hostel and its roof.

The otherwise busy Tongi Diversion Road stretching from BFDC Gate to Gulshan Link Road intersection at Mohakhali was nearly empty of traffic till 2:30pm, leading to severe gridlock on other roads in the city.

Earlier on Friday night, students set fire to a bus and damaged 20 vehicles.

At around nine in the morning, some students began vandalising buses on the road in front of the institute. Police deployed there since the previous night chased them back to their hall.

Soon hundreds from other dormitories massed in front of Latif Hostel and held a rally demanding compensation for the dead student’s family, construction of speed bumps and a ban on heavy vehicular movement on the roads around the institute.

They also asked the authorities to withdraw police from the campus immediately.

At around 10:00am, the crowds became infuriated to learn that the dormitories would be vacated and classes and examinations suspended for an indefinite period.

When some of them started throwing stones, the policemen posted in front of Latif Hostel gave them a chase.

Later, several hundred students split into four to five groups took position on the roof of the four-storey building and its different corners. Soon projectiles were raining down on the law enforcers from every direction and in no time the area became littered with stones and brickbats.

In reply, police fired tear gas shells and rubber bullets, leaving more than 20 students injured on the hall premises.

Tensions eased after Principal of the institute Shamsul Alam announced that they would do everything necessary to meet the demands including compensation for the family of Ashiqul Alam, a second-year student, who was run over and killed by a speeding bus at Satrasta point Friday night.

Deputy Commissioner of Tejgaon division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Mahbubor Rahman said he and 25 of his men suffered injuries.

He said a case would be filed with Tejgaon [Industrial Area] Police Station in connection with the incident.

Polytech Principal Shamsul Alam told The Daily Star that at an emergency meeting yesterday afternoon the higher authorities had directed them to vacate the four dormitories–Latif Hostel, Zahir Raihan Hostel, Quazi Motahar Hossain Hostel and Chhatri Nibash–and suspend classes.

Students said the principal had told them that the halls would be opened before the examinations begin on May 18.

Police opened the road for traffic after students vacated their dormitories by 2:30pm.

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