A faction of Bangladesh Chhatra League enforcing a strike at Chittagong University vandalised a train near the port city’s Sholoshahar railway station yesterday morning, leaving a train driver and two railway police injured.
The sudden attack on the CU-bound shuttle train forced Bangladesh Railway to suspend services to the university campus, sources said.
The faction, led by Suman Mamun, joint secretary of BCL’s CU unit, staged a strike for a second day yesterday to press home its eight-point demand, including removal of the CU proctor and expulsion of BCL members who assaulted an Awami League leader on the campus last month.
Witnesses and police sources said the BCL activists first slowed the train down by waving a red flag and then hurled brick chips at its engine as the shuttle was passing through Pilkhana area on the way to the campus.
The train later returned to the station and the BR authorities suspended services to the university until further notice, Sholoshahar station master Md Shahbuddin said.
The injured train driver, Anwar Hossain, was admitted to the Railway Hospital, while constables Musfiqur Rahman and Farid Khan of Government Railway Police (GRP) were taken to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
However, no one was arrested in connection with the violence, said Yasin Faruk, officer-in-charge of GRP outpost at Chittagong Railway Station.
BCL activists also set fire to rail tracks at Fatehabad in Hathazari upazila and halted campus-bound minibuses, causing immense sufferings to common students.
Meanwhile, most departments at CU postponed classes and only few held examinations as scheduled.
On April 5, some BCL activists assaulted Narir Haider Babul, assistant secretary of an AL sub-committee, as he attended a programme on the campus.
The central leadership of the ruling party’s student wing expelled five of its members in this connection. However, a rival faction has been demanding their expulsion from the university.
CU Proctor Sirajud Dowla said the university administration was investigating the assault on the AL leader. He also said they would sit with the BR authorities to resume shuttle services.
