On Monday morning, Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) formally apologised during a press conference at Dhaka University for the attack on the CPB-BSD rally, which injured CPB President Mujahidul Islam Selim in Sylhet on Sunday and was allegedly carried out by BCL activists.
The press conference was arranged at the university’s Madhur Canteen, BCL President Bodiuzzaman Sohag deemed the incident “unexpected.”
He claimed that some “overzealous” activists from the wing, as well as “infiltrators” from the BNP, had carried out the attack.
He also said the attack had been instigated by provocative remarks and “ultra-left and pro-Chinese” criticisms against the government by the speakers at the CPB-BSD rally, which had been the source of the altercation.
However, the BCL Central Committee General Secretary Siddiquee Nazmul Alam was not present at the press conference.
Sohag further asserted that senior party leaders had rushed to the scene to stop the Chhatra League activists and law enforcers had also aided in bringing the situation under control.
The district unit Chhatra League committee of Sylhet had been dissolved as an immediate organisational step, the Chhatra League president said, and assured the crowd that steps would eventually be taken against those who would be found to have been involved in the attack.
In quite a crowded press conference, the BCL president said BCL had a good term with the student wings of the two leftist organisations, and asserted that the three organisations shared a history of struggling against fundamentalism.