‘BCL men’ beat up quota reform leader

A leader of quota reform movement was allegedly beaten up by the ruling Awami League’s student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) men on the Dhaka University campus on Monday.

Hasan Al Mamun, the convener of ‘General Students’ Rights Protection Council’, which led the students’ movement last year over quota reform in government recruitment, was beaten by BCL men as he went to the vice-chancellor office to submit a memorandum with multiple demands including peaceful co-existence of all students’ bodies on the DU campus.

BCL Masterda Surja Sen Hall unit vice president and postgraduate student of Institute of Health Economics Raisul Islam along with some 30-40 BCL cadres attacked Mamun around 12:00pm while he was entering DU library, alleged Mamun. 

BCL leader Raisul is a follower of DU unit BCL president Sanjit Chandra Das.

Sanjit, however, denied the allegation and claimed that Raisul was with him at Madhur Canteen during the incident. 

Mamun alleged that the BCL men attacked him as the quota reform platform declared to contest Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) elections due on 11 March. “We planned to contest DUCSU polls from an independent panel.” 

Following the incident, quota reform leaders along with Bangladesh Chhatra Union, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front and Chhatra Federation went to DU proctor AKM Golam Rabbani’s office to complain about the incident. They locked into an altercation with the proctor there.

The proctor asked them to file a written complaint and assured of taking measures.