Court Correspondent :
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court of Dhaka yesterday rejected the bail petitions of 12 private university students in two cases filed in connection with vandalism and attacks on police during the countrywide student movement for road safety.
Magistrate Laskar Shohel Rana of the CMM Court passed the order on Thursday, hearing the bail petitions of 12 students.
The 12 students are Shakhawat Hossain Nijhum, Shihab Shahriar, Saber Ahmed Ullah, Ajijul Karim Antar, Rashedul Islam, Md Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahman, Redwan Ahmed, Reza Refat Ahmed, Shimanta Sarker, Iftekher Hossain and Masad Mortuza Bin Ahad.
Twenty-two students of seven private universities, arrested on charges in two cases filed with Badda and Bhatara police stations, were denied bail by courts in two phases.
Earlier, the students appealed together for bail on August 7 and 9, but their petitions were rejected and they were sent to jail on completion of their 2-day remand in the cases.
Four of them sought bail again on Sunday and eight others on Monday, but their prayers were turned down.
The arrested students belong to East West, North South, Southeast, BRAC, Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB), International University of Business Agriculture and Technology (IUBAT) and Asian University of Bangladesh.
The students of the seven private universities were arrested on August 6 following clashes between students and police aided by alleged ruling party men in Bashundhara Residential and Bhatara areas.
DU Correspondent adds; over 37 teachers of different public universities demanded immediate release of arrested students and stop inhuman torture on students who took part in “safe road movements and quota reform movements’’.
The teachers came up with the demands issuing a joint press statement on Wednesday.
They said, attack on students on different issues by law enforcers are rising and we all are aware about this. This oppression started on July 29 on the occasion of a press conference about quota reform movement in front of Dhaka University central library.
The injured students were faced to evacuate from the government hospital and secretly treated at private hospital. Even some private hospital refused them to treat. Such repression on students is unprecedented in the history of Bangladesh.
After that they arrested 11 students who were associated with quota reform movement. Of them, seven students are still in jail and others are on running.
Meanwhile, different school and college students of the capital protested after death of two school students by reckless bus driving. Police and pro government activists attacked students when they protested demanding justice.
Protesting oppression on teen ager students, students of different universities came on the street and demanded punishment of the attackers on the students.
They said the government also brutally treated the university students who took-part in the safe road movement. Police arrested 22 private university students and sent them to jail.
Some media men also faced attack by pro government activists.
We want justice for our children and at least they should be released on bail before Eid-ul-Ajha.
They urged the government to release them immediately and stop torturing on them.
The signatories teachers in the statement are: Professor Anu Muhammad of Economics department of Jahangirnagor University (JU), Assistant Professor Rushad Faridi of Economics department of Dhaka University (DU), Associate Professor Samina Laufa of Sociology Department of DU, Professor Fahmidul Haque of Mass Communication and Journalism Department of DU, Associate Professor Tanjim Uddin Khan of International Relation department of DU, Professor Robayet Ferdous of Mass Communication and Journalism department of DU, Professor Sayma Alam of Communication and Journalism Department of Chittagong University, Assistant Professor Goutom Roy of IER of Rajshahi University (RU) and Professor Hasibur Rahman of Electrical and Electronic Engineering department of BUET signed, among others.
