In Rajshahi, teachers and students on Thursday scuffled with the law enforcers after the law enforcers attempted to pick up several students from Rajshahi University campus following a peaceful demonstration.
Plainclothes law enforcers also assaulted two journalists during the incident.
Witnesses said that a group of RU teachers, under the banner 鈥擳he University Teachers Network鈥� brought out a silent procession in front of the university鈥檚 Shaheed Intellectual Memorial at about 11:10am and held a short rally to protest against the killing, and torture and harassment on students.
About three hundred students of different colleges and schools in Rajshahi also participated in the teachers鈥� programme.
When the teachers and students were, at the end of the rally, talking to the media, a group of plainclothes law enforcers equipped with sticks and iron rods suddenly grabbed some students and started moving hastily towards the police van, witnesses said.
Noticing that students were being taken away, teachers and students attempted to stop the law enforcers, resulting in a scuffle between the police and the teachers and students.
Amid obstructions from the teachers and students, at one stage, the law enforcers released all the students they grabbed.
Meanwhile, the plainclothes law enforcers also assaulted two journalists while they were recording the incident of grabbing and picking up the students.
Arpon Dhar, RU correspondent of Daily Samakal, said that a plainclothes police grabbed him in the neck and attempted to pick him up in a police van, stating that he was an informer of the protesters.
鈥業 gave my identity to the plainclothes police, and showed my press identity card. Yet, the policeman forcibly attempted to pick me up in a police van until Matihar police station officer-in-charge and some intelligence members forced the policeman to release me,鈥� he said.
聽Amzad Hossain, Rajshahi district correspondent of The Daily Campus, said that several plainclothes policemen first asked him because he was airing the incident.
聽鈥榃hen I gave my identity and showed the press card, one of them attempted to snatch his press identity card, and two others punched him from behind鈥�, he added.
After the incident, mass communication and journalism department Professor Selim Reza Newton told reporters that he did not know who the plainclothes people were. 鈥榃hat I have seen is that a group of people were trying to pick up students. Because, they did not inform us that they were law enforcers or whoever was,鈥� he said.
MCJ department Professor Abdullah Al Mamun said that the law enforcers carried out an attack on their peaceful programme.
鈥楢rresting someone on suspicion is wrong. I will say, please stop this. We will never accept that. Attack on our students means attack on-hour teachers,鈥� he added.
Mohammad Hemayatul Islam, additional police commissioner (crime and operation) of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police said, 鈥楴othing happened there. We have not arrested anyone. But, some students went on us heavily.鈥�
However, the students claimed that the law enforcers picked up two of their fellow students from the university campus.