Beaten by BCL, Ehsan leaves country

Ehsan Rafique, the Dhaka University student who was severely beaten by Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) men in February, has moved to Malaysia due to security concerns.

He will now study at a private university in Malaysia, but the people who the university had suspended for beating Ehsan are still staying at the DU dormitories.

Three of them had been thrown out of BCL as well, yet they are now very much active in the student wing's activities.

The BCL men had beaten Ehsan, a student of disaster management department, inside the dormitory on 6 February as he wanted his calculator back, something a certain Omar Faruk had taken from him three months earlier.

One of Ehsan's eyes was seriously damaged, and his family took him to India for better treatment.

"He left for Malaysia last month. He was very scared to go to the university again, so we had to take this decision," said his father Md Rafiqul Islam, the Jhenidah correspondent of a private TV channel.

Ehsan had applied to the university to allot him a seat at another dormitory, which the authorities refused.

After an investigation, the university had expelled Omar Faruk, assistant secretary of Salimullah Muslim (SM) Hall, and suspended Samiul Haque of sociology department, Ahsan Ullah of philosophy department, Ruhul Amin of mass communication and journalism department, Mehedi Hassan aka Himel of Urdu department, and Fardin Ahmed of public administration department, for two years.

Hall unit vice president Ariful Islam was suspended for a year.

However, Samiul and Fardin often come to the dormitory while Omar and Mehedi stay at Room No 12. Ariful stay at Room No 152 and Ahsan Ullah at 178.

They all are loyal to hall unit president Tahsan Ahmed, who has close ties with BCL central general secretary Golam Rabbani.

When Golam Rabbani was named the GS, they went to greet him with bouquet.

When asked, he said, "It will be very sad if true. But we were not in the committee then. If someone files a written complaint we can take steps."

Hall provost professor Mahbubul Alam Zoardar said, "I am not sure if someone suspended from the university can stay at a dormitory." He said he will look into the papers and can then speak further on the issue.

However, DU proctor AKM Golam Rabbani told this correspondent that if anyone is suspended he cannot avail himself of any universiy facilities.