Is this all police are good for?

Police charged truncheons, hurled tear gas cannisters and used water cannon in Dhaka yesterday to disperse a group of unarmed leftist students who were protesting the force’s inaction regarding assaults on women during Pohela Boishakh celebrations.

About a hundred members of Bangladesh Chhatra Union had gathered at the TSC roundabout on Dhaka University campus around 11:45am as per a previously announced schedule for laying siege to the office of Dhaka police chief.

After about a 15-minute stay there and a few speeches, the gathering brought out a procession. The protesters marched through some of the streets on the campus and headed towards the Shahbagh intersection.

But they had to turn back towards the Doyel Intersection because there was heavy traffic in Shahbagh. Chhatra Union later alleged that police created the traffic jam artificially to block them.

The march then turned back towards the Doyel Intersection, looking to leave the DU campus through the High Court point.

“A truck, loaded with barricades, was standing near the Bangla Academy. As soon as the protesters reached the TSC roundabout, the truck sped towards the Doyel Intersection,” said Dhaka Tribune’s photojournalist Mahmud Hossain Opu.

At Doyel, police tried to block the protesters using barricades. But the protesters breached the barricade and kept marching towards Minto Road, where the office of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) chief is located.

After having overcome two more smaller obstacles at Matsya Bhaban and Kakrail, the protesters reached near the Officer’s Club around 1pm. Police however did not allow them to move any further by putting up a strong barricade. So, the protesters decided to stage a sit-in right there.

According to witnesses, there were around 150 policemen including riot police, an armoured car and a water cannon stationed in the area. Law enforcers had by then stopped vehicular movement on the road from Kakrail church to the Moghbazar intersection.

Dhaka Tribune’s senior photojournalist Syed Zakir Hossain heard a police officer telling his superior over phone: “Do not worry, Sir. We will not allow them to move even an inch further.”

Soon, riot police personnel started replacing the regular police members in the front row of the barricade. A police officer asked the Chhatra Union men to go back; but the protesters replied that they would not until the DMP commissioner came and explained why they had not yet arrested anyone for assaulting women on DU campus on the Bangla New Year’s day.

While ruling Awami League’s student front Chhatra League has been surprisingly keeping mum about the assault on women, Chhatra Union, the student front of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), has been leading the protests for nearly a month.

The riot police members tried to push the protesters back and a scuffle ensued. In no time, the policemen started charging truncheons on the gathering and the protesters started running to and fro to avoid getting beaten up.

Some of them started fighting back by hurling bricks at the police and the law enforcers retaliated with tear gas cannisters and water cannon.

Photos taken by journalists showed policemen brutally beating up some of the protesters, including women, who got caught up in the middle of the skirmish, with rifle butts, truncheons and boots.

The police action on unarmed protesters went on for about 10 minutes and by 1:30pm, the protesters were completely dispersed. Police arrested five Chhatra Union members from the spot.

In a press conference at Modhu’s Canteen on DU campus later in the afternoon, Chhatra Union said that at least 34 of their leaders and activists were injured in police beating.

Lucky Akter, general secretary of Chhatra Union, told reporters at the presser: “Over the last 26 days, we have been staging peaceful protest programmes against the assault on women on Bangla New Year’s day … In these 26 days, the police administration has not been able to make the least of progresses in arresting the culprits. On top of that, they clarified their stance in favour of the attackers by questioning the authenticity of the incident.

“Today’s [Sunday] siege was part of a series of peaceful protest programmes to press home a set of six specific demands. Police personnel, obeying orders from the DMP commissioner, lodged a brutal attack on our programme.

“With this attack, the university and police authorities have made it even clearer that they are on the side of the attackers,” said Lucky, who rose to prominence during the 2013 Shahbagh movement.

The arrested members are Anik Roy, organising secretary of Chhatra Union’s Dhaka city unit; Dipanjan Siddhanta Kajal, general secretary of Jahangirnagar University (JU) unit; Ariful Islam Anik, member of JU unit; Antu Chandra Nath, member of Dhaka unit; and Saddam Hossain Joy, member of Dhaka unit.

Chhatra Union President Hasan Tarek later announced protest marches across the country for today and peaceful strikes at all educational institutions for tomorrow. Over the past month, the leftist student organisation organised a number of human chains and rallies protesting the Boishakh assault on women.

When contacted, Mashiur Rahman, the OC of Ramna police station, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Six police members including Second Officer-in-Charge Kamrul Islam and Inspector Ali Hossain were injured.”

Confirming that they had arrested five leaders and activists of Chhatra Union, the OC said that they were still to decide whether to show them arrested or release them after primary investigation.

“We detained those students because they were assaulting on-duty police members and were trying to obstruct the law enforcers from performing their duties,” OC Mashiur claimed.

The Dhaka Tribune also contacted Abdul Baten, deputy commissioner of Police’s Ramna Zone, who was leading the policemen during the incident.

He said: “The protesters were obstructing traffic in the area. Police asked them to move away and send their representatives with their demands. But they did not listen to us and created chaos in the VIP area.”

On April 14, several women, who joined the Bangla New Year celebrations, were sexually assaulted by a group of miscreants at Dhaka University’s TSC and Suhrawardy Udyan gate areas.

Liton Nandi, president of DU unit of Chhatra Union, along with other activists were injured while trying to rescue a few of the victims.

When contacted yesterday, police spokesperson Monirul Islam said they had some pictures of the Boishakh attackers but did not have enough proof to identify and arrest them.

Source: Dhaka tribune