Friend describes how DU student Shahriar was killed

Shahriar Alam Samya was returning to Dhaka University (DU) campus from the Suhrawardy Udyan on a motorcycle with two of his friends Tuesday night.

On the way, they collided with another motorcycle which was accompanied by two or three other motorcycles with two to three riders on each. The little collision led to an altercation between the two sides. At one point, the riders on the other motorcycles attacked and started beating the students. In between, some of them stabbed Shahriar.

Speaking to Prothom Alo on Wednesday evening, Shahriar’s friend Ashraful Alam Rafi, a student of the microbiology department at DU, said he and Shahriar were batch mates. However, Shahriar was a master’s student at the Institute of Education and Research at Dhaka University. He was also the literary and publication secretary of the DU unit of Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the BNP, at Sir AF Rahman Hall.

Ashraful Alam said, “We three (Shahriar, Ahsraful and Md Abdullah Al Bayezid) were returning to campus from the Suhrawardy Udyan on Tuesday night. On our way we had a little collision with another motorcycle. The riders of the motorcycles were accompanied by some 10-12 people on two or three motorcycles. We had an altercation with them after the incident.”

“At one point they attacked us. We tried our best to save ourselves. However, Shahriar was stabbed in between which led to heavy bleeding. Samya died on the spot,” he added.

Ashraful further said, “We had studied together for the last 6-7 years. He was more like a brother to me."

Meanwhile, protest rallies were held all day on the DU campus today in protest of the incident.  Shahriar’s namaz-e-janaza was also held on the campus. The DU authorities have already formed a seven member committee to investigate the matter.

The Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal has demanded resignation of the vice-chancellor and proctor of the university in protest.