30 hurt as Dhaka College students, traders clash

Motocycles were burnt in a clash between the students of Dhaka College and traders in the New Market which left six people injured. Photo: Shaheen Mollah

Star Online Report

At least 30 people were injured as Dhaka College students fought pitched battles with traders in the capital’s New Market area this afternoon.
The traders alleged that around 40 shops were ransacked at the two-storey Dhanmondi Hawkers Market, four motorcycles torched and some 10 vehicles vandalised during the two-hour clash.
Following the clash, traders shuttered around seven markets in the area and traffic movement came to a standstill for hours, causing huge congestion on the roads in the nearby areas.
During the clash that started around 3:15pm, both the students and traders pelted brick chips at each other, leaving the road littered with fractions of bricks.
Police used sound grenade, rubber bullets and teargas to bring the situation under control.
All this happened over buying sarees from the hawkers market around 3:15pm.
Traders alleged that two boys along with a woman and a child went to a shop from the market, chose three shares and wanted to leave the shop without paying the price of the saress which was Tk 60,000. They told the shopkeepers that they were from Dhaka College and had power in the city.
The four left the shop after the angry shopkeepers hurled abusive language at them.
Around 20 minutes later, some 25 Dhaka College students returned in a group with local weapons including iron rods and matches and vandalised and looted around 40 shops at the market, Haji Md Khorshed Alam, joint general secretary of market’s shop owners, told journalists.
He said around 20 traders were injured in the clash.
The four left the shop after the angry shopkeepers hurled abusive language at them.
Around 20 minutes later, some 25 Dhaka College students returned in a group with local weapons including iron rods and matches and vandalised and looted around 40 shops at the market, Haji Md Khorshed Alam, joint general secretary of market’s shop owners, told journalists.
Later, around 500 students and 1,000 traders joined in the clash. They pelted bricks chips, and chased each other during the scuffle.
Jasim Uddin, additional police commissioner (Ramna zone), told The Daily Star that they fired around 50 rounds of rubber bullets, sound grenades and tear gas canisters to bring the situation under control.
The traffic movement became normal after 5:00pm, he added.
At least seven of the injured were taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment, Inspector Mozammel Haque, in-charge of DMCH police camp, told The Daily Star.

Fighting tanks, guns with bows and arrows

Ananta Yusuf

Armed only with bows and arrows, brave young indigenous fighters are resisting modern artillery; such tales of courage are usually seen in novels or movies. However, the history of Bangladesh’s bloody birth is full of such tales. We will tell you the story of the bravery and courage of Moulvibazar indigenous tea garden workers.
The wave of protests across the country during the six-point movement managed to touch the serene lives of indigenous tea garden workers as well. The proclamation of independence on March 26, 1971 and the news of mass killing spread like wildfire in the tea gardens. After March 7, workers staged agitations with bows and arrows.
On 27 March, 1971, indigenous people stood on a bridge at Kamalganj in Moulvibazar and fought the Pak army with homemade weapons. They shot arrows incessantly and many were left injured. After this incident Pakistan army faced strong resistance in every tea garden.
Around the middle of the 1971 war, Gurna Bhor, an indigenous freedom fighter, was killed at Doloi Tea Garden in Moulvibazar. Gurna Bhor was riddled with bullets when he tried to notify other freedom fighters of the Pakistani army’s location.
The indigenous tea garden workers of Moulvibazar fought for independence, fought for their land, yet 44 years after independence they still remain landless. They did not receive any state recognition and their story of valor remains unknown.
The list of martyrs runs long in the district.
Indigenous Santal, Munda, Orao and Tanti communities in Rangpur also fought for independence in 1971.
In this month of victory, it is time to show our gratitude once more to these freedom fighters.

195 Pak army men to be tried for war crimes: Minister

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the government will take initiatives to bring the 195 Pakistani army personnel from the country and try them for war crimes in Bangladesh. Star file photo

Star Online Report

The government will take initiatives to bring the 195 Pakistani army personnel from the country and try them for war crimes in Bangladesh, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said today.
“The government would take measurers through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to bring those Pakistanis who had committed war crimes and put them under trial,” the minister said at a programme of Industrial Police at Sreepur of Gazipur’s Ashulia.  
The minister was replying to a query of a journalist who asked as to whether the government would be able to try those 195 Pakistani army personnel for their crimes against humanity in 1971 as per the Simla Treaty between India and Pakistan, Sharif Mahmud Apu, public relations officer of the home ministry who was accompanying the minister, told The Daily Star.
Khan received salute from 300 new members of the industrial police at the end of their training and parade. Senior police officials from Dhaka range were also present.