A man was killed and about 300 people were injured on Wednesday as a student protest that began at Bangladesh’s Dhaka University spread to other institutions in the city and across the country, witnesses said.
The victim, a rickshaw-puller, was caught in clashes between police and students at a university in the north-western city of Rajshahi. At least 100 students were injured, witnesses said.
Another 100 people were injured in the capital, Dhaka, and at least eight vehicles were set ablaze as riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas on violent students backed by political activists.
The protests erupted on Wednesday despite the military-backed interim administration’s move to withdraw troops from the Dhaka University campus following violent protests from the students.
Students at Rajshahi university marched with the body of the rickshaw puller, blaming police for his death. But a police official said he was hit by bricks thrown by the students.
In Dhaka students from half a dozen colleges and universities took to the streets, chanting support for comrades at Dhaka University — the country’s largest — who boycotted classes and exams for a third day.
Protesters attacked the home of education adviser to the government, Ayub Qadri, on Tuesday night, police said.
An office of a business firm owned by another government adviser, Tapan Chowdhury, was also attacked on Wednesday.
”The city is in turmoil, there is smoke billowing from burning tyres,” a police officer said.
The fighting had started at the Dhaka University campus on Monday evening after troops assaulted some students protesting against the presence of soldiers at a football match held at the gymnasium compound.
Troops had been based in the complex since January when an interim administration took power after months of political violence in the country.
Classes and exams at the 40 000-student school have been suspended, with students across Bangladesh calling for a countrywide strike.
The army-backed interim government withdrew the offending army camp on Tuesday night and promised to punish those responsible for starting the violence.
But the students have refused to be appeased, and gained backing from political parties who called for an immediate end of the nationwide ban on political activity imposed by the interim government after it took charge.
Political analysts fear the student protest may pose a serious challenge to the army-backed government, which plans to hold a free and fair election late next year.
Students also clashed with police in the southern towns of Barisal and Khulna and in the north-eastern Sylhet town.
Students from Jahangirnagar University at Savar, 40km north of Dhaka, barricaded a highway and clashed with police trying to disperse them on Wednesday, witnesses said.
”The situation is deteriorating as teachers now have came out to join protesting students,” said another police officer in Dhaka.
The violence has shut shops, forced public transport off the streets and caused panic among residents in affected areas, witnesses said.
Witnesses said people angry over soaring commodity prices and shortage of electricity and clean water also joined the students’ protests. — Reuters