A faction of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) at Chittagong University (CU) yesterday urged university authorities to take all necessary measures in ensuring their safety on campus.
The shuttle train-based faction, known as Varsity Express (VX), has kept out of campus for the past month and half, following the murder of a student in a factional clash at Shah Amanat Hall.
The BCL supporters, at a 12pm press conference at Chittagong Press Club, also demanded an impartial investigation by CID into the killing of Tapos Sarkar and immediate arrest of the real killers.
Mohammed Faruk, a former BCL unit member, read out the speech at the press conference, which was attended by SM Ariful Islam, the CU BCL dissolve committee’s organising secretary, among others.
In his speech, Faruk referred to the Tapos murder case, stating that another shuttle train-based group, Choose Friend with Care (CFC), has been active in bringing back Shibir on campus and was behind the plan to gun down Tapos.
“The cases filed accusing VX members of the murder are false, fabricated, and baseless, and 12 activists and leaders have needlessly suffered behind bars for the past one and half months,” added Faruk.
Faruk alleged that CFC members had driven out VX activists from the BCL-dominated Shah Jalal dormitory of CU, torching their certificates, books, and other valuables, while also carrying out attacks on VX members off campus.
At the press briefing, VX members also alleged that Hathazari police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Md Ismail Hossain had played a part, after Tapos’s murder, in influencing the murder investigation.
Tapos Sarkar, a first-year student of Sangskrit department, was shot dead on December 14 last year, during a turf war between the two BCL factions – VX and CFC – at the Shah Amanat dormitory. Both groups are patronised by city unit AL president ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, while Tapos was a CFC member, said police.
The police had filed an arms case accusing 55 people, including five VX members, in connection with the arms recovery, while Haizul Islam, a friend of Tapos, had filed a murder case with Hathazari Police Station against 50 people, of whom 30 names were found to be BCL members.
