'Quota reform protester Ashiqur shot by BCL men'
A quota reform protester and Dhaka University student, Ashiqur Rahman, is undergoing treatment at the intensive care unit (ICU) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital after being shot allegedly by activists of ruling Awami League's student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL).
A fourth-year student of the public administration department of DU, Ashiqur sustained bullet injuries in front of Gurdwara Nanak Shahi on campus early 9 April when a group of BCL activists chased the quota protesters, said his friends.
They categorically alleged that BCL activists opened fire on Ashiqur.
A classmate of Ashiqur who was present with him that day told Prothom Alo that around 2:00am a group of BCL activists chased the protesters from TSC (Teacher-Student Centre) to the DU vice chancellor's residence, repeatedly opening fire.
Ashiqur was shot, he added.
Asked about the shooting, BCL general secretary SM Zakir Hossain told Prothom Alo, ''This allegation is baseless. No activists of BCL opened fire during the chase and counter-chase.''
Then who shot Ashiqur as there were no police deployed there? Zakir Hossain said that the Dhaka University authorities can investigate the matter and find this out.
Ashiqur has been under treatment of DMCH casualty department's physician Faruq Hossain.
Talking about Ashiqur's condition, he said, ''The bullet is lodged inside his body. He also has injuries in his liver and lungs, but is now out of danger.''
Besides Ashiqur, two more quota reform protesters have been undergoing treatment at DMCH.
One of them, Mohammed Shahriar Hossain, a third-year student of DU's chemistry department, sustained a total of eight rubber bullet wounds in his back. The other, Mohammed Tanvir Hassan, a fourth-year student of DU's theatre and performance studies department, was baton charged by police.
Shahriar Hossain told Prothom Alo that he was hit in the back when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas early 9 April.
Tanvir, also a central committee member of BCL, was beaten by police as he was trying to save the protesters from rubber bullets and tear gas fired by police.
''I'm first a student and then a leader of BCL. I took part in the protest as I support it ideologically.''
*This report, originally published in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English by Imam Hossain.
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