Six killed as clashes erupt all over the country

At least six people were killed and scores were injured on Tuesday as students’ protests against the job quota across Bangladesh turned deadly amid attacks by police and ruling party supporters on protesters.
Students from schools and private universities joined public university and college students in the protest on the day, paralysing road and rail communications across the country.
Three deaths were reported in Chattogram, two in Dhaka, and one in Rangpur during daylong violence that also left about 500 injured in different public universities and colleges.
The attacks against the protesters began soon after the ruling Awami League general secretary said on Monday that the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling party, was ready to give a fitting reply to quota protesters for their ‘arrogant behaviour.’
On Monday, a BCL attack on quota protesters on the Dhaka University campus and other places left about 400 injured.
Clashes erupted on Tuesday as students and protesters returned to the street, in some places ready to fight back if attacked.
Amid escalating violence, the government deployed Border Guard Bangladesh in Dhaka, Chattogram, Bogura, Rajshahi, and Rangpur to maintain law and order, said an official of the paramilitary force.
The authorities also declared high schools and colleges closed for an indefinite period, considering the safety of students, according to an order from the education ministry.
HSC examinations and equivalent examinations of all educational boards scheduled for Thursday were also postponed, according to a press release from the inter-education board coordination committee.
Two people were killed and over 200 were injured in a clash between several thousand students of Dhaka College, City College, Ideal College Dhanmondi, Birshreshtha Munshi Abdur Rouf Public College students, and BCL and AL’s youth front Juba League at the Science Laboratory crossing at about 2:00pm.
One of the victims was identified as Md Shahjahan, 24, a hawker in the New Market area, and a resident of the Munshiganj district.
Shahjahan’s mother, Ayesha Begum, identified his body at about 8:15pm at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Ayesha said she found Shahjahan hit by a bullet in the head.
An unidentified youth aged 25 was also killed.
Dhaka Medical College Hospital outpost in-charge Bachchu Mia confirmed the matter, saying that a pedestrian brought the critically injured youth to the hospital before he was declared dead by on-duty doctors.
Quoting the pedestrian, Bachchu said that the youth was brought to the hospital from the Dhaka College area, where he was lying beside the road.
The clashes began when BCL and JL men attacked protesters in the afternoon.
Four students of Jagannath University were shot and wounded in the afternoon during demonstrations near the campus, demanding reform in the quota system.
They were admitted to the DMCH. More than 127 injured people had been treated at the DMCH, according to hospital sources.
Eight of the injured were admitted to the health facility until 10:00pm, mostly with bullet injuries.
Some students brought out a protest procession from the university around 3:30pm and when they were marching towards Ray Saheb Bazar, gunshots were fired from an alley, leaving four students wounded. Clashes were also reported in Rupnagar and in the Mirpur-10 area of Dhaka.
Sohel Ahmed, an employee of Popular Medical College, said that around 30 injured people came to the hospital for treatment.
Among the injured, two were referred to Dhaka Medical College in critical condition, he added.
Fire service spokesperson Mohammad Shahjahan said that two buses of Trans Silva Paribahan were set on fire by unidentified people near the National Press Club around 8:30pm.
There was, however, no one injured from the fire incident, he said.
At least three people, including a student of Chattogram College, were killed during a clash between the quota protestors and BCL activists in Chattogram in the afternoon, New Age Staff Correspondent in the district reported.
The deceased are Wasim Akram, 24, a student at Chittagong College, and M Faruk, 25, a worker at a furniture shop. The other victim could not be identified immediately.
A local of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party said Wasim was the joint secretary of the party’s student wing, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal’s Chattogram College unit.
Chattogram Medical College Hospital director Brigadier General Mohammad Taslim Uddin said that two of the deceased were hit by bullets, while the other died from physical assault. He said that they treated at least 30 injured people from Tuesday’s clash.
The clash started at about 3:00pm in the Sholoshahar area of Chattogram, police officials said, referring to witnesses.
A student of Begum Rokeya University Rangpur was killed and around 100 were injured, including police and journalists, on Tuesday noon in a clash between police and anti-quota protesters on the campus, New Age correspondent in Rangpur reported.
The deceased was identified as Abu Sayeed, 25, a 12th batch English Department student of the university, who was one of the organisers of the quota reform movement.
The youth was the son of Maqbul Hossain, a resident of Babanpur, Pirganj upazila, Rangpur.
Ishrarul Haque, an official of Rangpur Medical College Hospital, told New Age that the body of a bullet-hit student was taken to the hospital following a clash between police and the students of Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur.
The agitated protestors set fire to the ground floor of vice-chancellor Professor Md Hasibur Rashid’s residence and Banagabadhu Hall on the campus this evening.
Later, police and the Rapid Action Battalion rescued the VC from the confinement and took him to a safer place.
Authorities declared the Begum Rokeya University closed for indefinite period, asking the students to vacate the halls by 12:00pm Wednesday.
Students in Dhaka and other places across the country blocked roads, highways, and rail tracks to press home their demands. Clashes were also reported in Sirajganj and Dinajpur.
Correspondent in Sirajganj reported that Sirajganj police detective branch sub-inspector Soumik Isalam was injured during the clash. Confirming the matter, the DB police officer-in-charge said that Soumik was admitted to Shaheed Monsur Ali Medical College Hospital in Sirajganj and given 12 stitches on the injured part of the body.
Addressing a press conference at AL president Sheikh Hasina’s political office in Dhanmondi on Tuesday, AL general secretary Quader alleged that the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting chairman, Tarique Rahman, now in London, was conspiring with anti-quota protesters.
Quader claimed that prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s statement made at a press conference linking anti-qouta protesters with Razkar, a collaborating force of the Pakistani Army during the War of Independence in 1971, was distorted.
Quader said that the BNP, its ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and other like-minded parties were involved in this.
‘We will resist the movement that targets the War of Independence. The government will not accept public suffering in the name of movement and humiliation of the liberation war in any way,’ Quader, also the road, transport, and bridges minister, said.
Addressing a rally on Tuesday, BCL central president Saddam Hossain claimed that at least 500 BCL leaders and activists were injured on Monday across the country.
‘BCL activists will act strongly if any ‘Razakar” tries to create anarchy in the educational institution,’ he added.
Dhaka University administration on Tuesday collected sticks, rods, and bamboo from the Teacher Students Centre and other places on campus in a drive led by DU assistant proctor Abdul Muhit.
On Monday, BCL used similar elements to attack protesting students on the Dhaka University campus and the emergency unit of Dhaka Medical College, witnesses said.
Several thousand anti-quota protesters from Dhaka University and other educational institutions took positions at the Central Shaheed Minar, protesting the continued attacks by BCL and the Juba League in Dhaka and other places across the country.
Addressing a rally at Shaheed Minar, Nahid Islam, one of the coordinators of the Students Movement Against Discrimination, demanded justice for the killings of his fellow protestors by the police, BCL activists, and JL activists by opening fire.
‘The protest has flared across the country… We will continue our protest until our demand is met,’ said Nahid.
He urged all students to boycott BCL as DU science faculty students did on campus.
‘I urge all students in all residential halls on all campuses to build castles so that no terrorists or outsiders could stay in any halls,’ he said.
Nahid said they had no programme scheduled for Wednesday due to the holy Ashura.
DU assistant proctor Abdul Muhit, professor Mustafizur Rahman, associate professors Farzana Ahmed and Hasan Faruk, and assistant professor Emanul Haq Sarkar Titu were injured and allegedly attacked by quota protesters.
Students from various private universities, including North South University, BRAC University, and Independent University, Bangladesh, have blocked the Merul Badda road and the road in front of Jamuna Future Park, demanding quota reform and protesting attacks on the students.
Students of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College and Notre Dame College also joined protests in Siddeshwari and Arambagh, respectively.
Dhaka’s rail communications with other parts of the country were suspended as quota protesters put up a barricade on the level crossing in Dhaka’s Mohakhali area, where students set fire to a motorbike.
Violence erupted on Monday when members of the BCL attacked the protesters on the Dhaka University campus with firearms and sticks and on some other campuses.
The protesters blocked highways, including Dhaka-Chattogram, Khulna-Jashore, Dhaka-Pabna, and Barishal-Kuakata.
Clashes were also reported overnight at Jahangirnagar University, which left at least 100 injured, including several teachers.
correspondent at Jahangirnagar University reported that the anti-quota protesters chased the university unit of BCL men soon after they were attacked on Tuesday.
Over a thousand agitated students chased the BCL men from the university vice-chancellor Nurul Alam’s residence—where they were attacking a group of protesters.
The protesters later vandalised at least five rooms of BCL leaders, including the rooms of JU unit BCL president Akhtaruzzaman Sohel and general secretary Habibur Rahman Liton.
They also burned two motorbikes of BCL men, allegedly involved in the attack on the protesters.
On Tuesday morning, BCL leaders and activists from all residential halls of the university were seen leaving the campus.
New Age Staff Correspondent in Rajshahi reported that at Rajshahi University, the agitating students drove the university unit of BCL men from the campus after they later attacked several students at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Hall.
Witnesses said that BCL men carrying iron rods, bamboo sticks, and wooden slices entered Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Hall at 2:45pm and beat up several students who were preparing to bring out a protest rally on campus protesting against the attack on their fellows.
When BCL men were leaving after hanging a lock on the entrance gate, students started hurling brickbats targeting BCL men.
About 10,000 students brought a protest rally on campus with bamboo sticks and wooden slices and drove away the BCL men from the campus.
The agitating students also vandalised Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, where a group of BCL men took shelter on the roof and set over 15 motorcycles of BCL men on fire