Police arrest two RU students beaten by Ammar and Chhatra Shibir leaders

Police have shown two of the three students beaten by RUCSU General Secretary Salahuddin Ammar and leaders and activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir at Rajshahi University as arrested in a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The two injured students were shown arrested late on Monday night by Motihar Police Station.

The arrested are Md Anas (2017-18 session, Department of Islamic History and Culture) and Mahmudul Hasan (Department of Sanskrit).

Motihar Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mohammad Golam Kabir confirmed on Tuesday morning that the two were shown arrested in a previously filed case regarding terrorist activities of Chhatra League. They are currently undergoing treatment, and the process of sending them to jail through the court is underway.

On Monday, leaders and activists of Rajshahi University Central Students' Union (RUCSU) and Islami Chhatra Shibir beat three students on campus. One of the victims was claimed to be a former activist of the banned Chhatra League.

A video circulating on social media showed RUCSU GS Ammar hurling abuses from a distance, and students responding in kind. At one point, Salahuddin Ammar started throwing bricks and stones. Proctor Professor Mahbubur Rahman then took the students inside the reading room.

According to witnesses and video footage, Shibir and RUCSU leaders subsequently entered the reading room, pushing aside the proctor, and beat the students with bamboo, rods, belts and sticks. Other students who tried to intervene were also attacked.

Proctorial body members, police and students later expelled the Shibir and RUCSU leaders from the reading room. However, as injured Mahmudul Hasan was being taken to hospital by ambulance, two individuals attacked him again, pulling him out and kicking him repeatedly. Police and students finally got him to hospital.

The university administration will form a probe committee to investigate the incident, Proctor Mahbubur Rahman said. The university's Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Administration) Professor Abdul Alim said the matter would be investigated and the guilty punished according to university laws.