BCL men threaten blockade at CU:Daily Star

A  Chhatra League faction has threatened to call an indefinite blockade on the Chittagong University campus from Sunday should their men are not released by then. Police arrested 25 leaders and activists of the faction for their alleged involvement in the December 14 murder of a fellow student on the campus. The threat came at a press conference at the Chittagong Press Club yesterday. The press co
nference was organised by a group dubbed Varsity Express, run by Jalal Ahmed, former office secretary, and Ariful Islam, former organising secretary, of the CU BCL. Presenting a seven-point demand, Mohaiminul Haque Faisal, a fourth-year student of chemistry department and also a leader of the group, claimed police were not arresting the real killers of Tapash Chandra Sarker. Tapash, 20, was a first-year student of Sanskrit department and also an activist of another BCL faction that calls itself Choose Friends with Care. He was shot in the chest during a factional clash. Faisal claimed law enforcers were harassing their men. “Police filed cases against our leaders and activists though they were not involved in the clash,” he said. “We also want punishment of the real killers of Tapash.” Advertisement The group gave a 72-hour ultimatum to accept their demands, including withdrawal of the cases against the students who were not involved in the clash and suspension of the officer-in-charge of Hathazari Police Station for his “negligence in duty”. Police initially picked up 28 students for interrogation on Sunday and recovered one shotgun, five cartridges and 30 lethal weapons from different rooms of Shah Jalal Hall and Shah Amanat Hall. Three of them were later released while the 25 others were sent to jail. Police filed an arms case against five named and 60 unnamed leaders and activists of the Varsity Express group. They also filed a murder case against 30 named and 15 unnamed men of the group. THE CONFLICT The conflict between the two factions is nothing new. Though both factions are followers of Chittagong city AL president ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, they often fight each other to establish supremacy on the campus, said BCL sources. Following repeated clashes, the BCL CU committee was dissolved on June 10. Over the last one year, the two groups fought at least 12 times. On September 28, two students suffered bullet injuries during a clash. CU Proctor Siraj-ud-Daula told The Daily Star that Tapash's death was a result of infighting of the two groups. “The two factions have been fighting each other for over a year now,” he said. At a programme on November 12 in the port city, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also the AL chief, expressed her resentment over the dispute. She also ordered the AL leaders to resolve the conflict, party sources said. Three days later, Chittagong city AL president ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury and general secretary AZM Nasir Uddin spoke with the leaders of the two factions and asked them to maintain peace on the campus. They were also warned of “tough action” if they failed to do so. But Tapash lost his life less than a month after the warning.