Police have yet to identify the woman centring whom the clash between the shopkeepers of Dhanmondi Hawkers Market and student activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League in Dhaka College took place on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a trader named Anwar Hossain, on behalf of the market, filed a case with New Market police yesterday, accusing 150-200 unidentified people for the clash that left around 15 people injured.
The case was filed around 10:30am. But the police had not arrested anyone yesterday, said Ruhul Amin Sagar, DMP assistant commissioner of Dhanmondi zone.
“However, police have the names of those who started the altercation and are now looking for more details,” the official told the Dhaka Tribune. But the woman, with whom the altercation started in the first place over buying saris, have not been identified yet. “Her role in all this must be investigated too,” Ruhul said.
“The students got involved in the clash in small groups; some of them have been identified and police are working on identifying the others. The role of the shopkeepers and their staff is also being investigated.”
The students, from Dhaka College and mostly members of Chhatra League, clashed with shopkeepers of the market on the stretch of Mirpur Road between New Market and Science Laboratory intersections on Thursday afternoon, blocking the road for about two hours near the capital’s busiest shopping hub.
At least 15 people, including pedestrians and shoppers, were injured. Seven of them were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Over two dozen shops were vandalised and some of them were looted, four motorcycles torched and a number of vehicles damaged before police managed to bring the situation under control around 5:20pm.