Four detained over lynching youth at Dhaka University

The police have detained four students for their alleged involvement in the lynching of a youth named Tofazzal Hossain at Fazlul Huq Muslim Hall on the Dhaka University campus.

The detainees are Jalal Miya from the physics department; Mohammad Suman from the soil, water, and environment department; Mohammad Sakin from nutrition and food science; and Sajjad.

Cops from the Shahbagh police station apprehended them on Thursday afternoon, in collaboration with the university administration.

Of them, Jalal Miya was an assistant secretary of the Bangladesh Chhatra League’s Fazlul Huq Muslim Hall unit. He stepped down from his position and actively participated in the quota reform protests.

For the three others, no political affiliation could be confirmed.

It was learned that the duo was taken to the police station from the dormitory around 4:15 pm on Thursday.

When asked about the detention, Shahbagh police station officer-in-charge (OC) AKM Shahabuddin Shahin told Prothom Alo that the deputy commissioner (media) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) would brief the media in this regard.

A group of students allegedly beat up a man – Tofazzal Hossain – in phases after confining him in the guest house of the dormitory on Wednesday night. When the victim was taken to hospital around 12:00 am, physicians pronounced him dead. 

Earlier, a student made a post in a DU-based Facebook group, saying that the man was taken inside the hall, suspecting him to be a thief. 

When the news of his death spread a few hours later, the students expressed strong reactions on social media, condemning the death. They demanded that the incident of extra-judicial killing be tried and the responsible ones be served with exemplary punishment. 

Some students also staged demonstrations in the TSC area on the campus early in the morning.