At least two students were injured when crude bombs were hurled at a Chittagong University (CU)-bound shuttle train in Chowdhury Haat railway station of Hathazari upazila in Chittagong yesterday morning.
The victims – Pritom Shuvo, a third-year philosophy student and activist of Udichi’s CU unit, and Sourav Saha Joy, a marine science and fisheries student and activist of a left-wing student organisation – were treated at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH).
There was another crude bomb attack earlier in the morning at Sholoshohor railway station, from where the shuttle train started towards the CU, said Md Shahabuddin, station master of Sholoshohor railway station.
“Activists of General Students of CU (GSCU), a section of students staging a strike on the campus demanding the reopening of two dormitories, interrupted the shuttle train scheduled to start towards the university at 7:50am and demanded suspension of the service,” said the station master.
However, after remaining suspended for half an hour, the station authorities tried to resume the service. But when the train was being prepared for the journey, at least three crude bombs were hurled at it at the Forest Gate area around 8:30am, he said.
Later, when the train left Sholoshohor and stopped at Chowdhury Haat around 9:30am, around seven to eight crude bombs were thrown at the train, which left the two students injured, witnesses said.
“Both the attacks were launched by the GSCU activists who had demanded to suspend the shuttle train service,” claimed the station master.
On information, the Railway Police went to the scene and fired around 20 blank rounds to bring the situation under control, said Arab Ali, in-charge of Railway Police’s Sholoshohor outpost.
The schedules of the shuttle train service were delayed by an hour due to the attacks, the station master said.
CU Proctor Siraj Ud Dowla said Shibir men had carried out the attacks, adding that the university authorities had given directives to the law enforcement agencies to take necessary steps in this regard.
Additional police has also been deployed on the campus to avoid further unrest, he said.
Ashiqur Rahman, spokesperson for the GSCU, brushed off the allegations and said they were trying to divert attention from the issue at hand.
The Shibir leaders at the university also denied the allegation of being involved in the attacks, but said they morally supported the GSCU’s cause.
GSCU was formed by the resident students of the two dormitories, which were shut down after a recent clash between Chhatra League and Shibir activists.
Before shutting down, the dormitories were under the stronghold of Shibir, said campus sources.
The classes and examinations in different departments took place at the scheduled time despite the attacks, the sources added.