Jatiya Chhatra Shakti leader Hasib attacked with machete in Sreemangal

Hasib Al Islam, a former coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement and president of the Dhaka University unit of Jatiya Chhatra Shakti, was attacked with a machete in Sreemangal, Moulvibazar.

The incident took place in front of Balishira Resort in the Radhanagar area of Sreemangal at around noon on Tuesday. A video of the incident has gone viral on Facebook. The identity of the attacker was not immediately known.

The video shows Hasib Al Islam and a young woman travelling in a battery-run autorickshaw along the road in front of the resort. The person recording the video can be heard hurling abuses at Hasib. After the autorickshaw stops, the man shakes hands with Hasib and makes further offensive remarks about him. He then suddenly lunges at Hasib.

Hasib gets off the autorickshaw and runs away. Towards the end of the video, a shadow on the ground appears to indicate that the attacker was holding a machete.

An employee of Balishira Resort, speaking to Prothom Alo on condition of anonymity, said Hasib Al Islam had been staying at the resort for the past three days. On Tuesday, he and the young woman left the resort in a battery-run autorickshaw, intending to travel to Chattogram.

After they had travelled a short distance, a man armed with a machete attacked them. Hasib ran back to the resort. Noticing an injury to his hand, the resort authorities bandaged it in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

A short while later, they again left in an autorickshaw, heading towards the railway station.

Hasib Al Islam was called several times on his mobile phone for comment, but he did not respond.

Jatiya Chhatra Shakti is the student wing of the National Citizen Party (NCP). Pritom Das, joint convener of the NCP's central committee, is from Sreemangal.

Speaking to Prothom Alo over the phone on Tuesday afternoon, Pritom Das said Hasib was travelling by train to Cumilla after the incident. He would return to Sreemangal from there. Once he returned, they would file a case with Sreemangal police station and decide on further programmes.

Kamrul Hossain Chowdhury, in-charge of the Sreemangal Zone of Tourist Police, told Prothom Alo that he had heard about an incident of this nature. However, no one had filed a complaint with them. They were looking into the matter.