Staff Reporter :At least 30 people were injured in a clash between the students of Dhaka College and the shopkeepers in the city’s New Market area on Thursday afternoon.During the clash that lasted nearly two hours, traffic on the Mirpur road came to a standstill about two hours creating untold sufferings to the commuters. Police and witnesses said that the clash was erupted at 3:30pm when a student of Dhaka College locked in an altercation with a shopkeeper of Bismillah Cloth Centre at Dhanmondi Hawkers Market over the price of a spectacle.When the disagreement burgeoned between the two sides, the shopkeeper and some traders of the market beat the student after confining him.As the news spread on the college campus, a group of students led by leaders of Dhaka College Chhatra League (BCL) unit rushed to the market and beat up the shopkeeper, leaving him injured.Later, more students joined them and vandalized many footpath shops and set fire to four motorbikes parked beside the market. They also swooped on the traders with iron rods and bamboo sticks.Later, the traders of the Hawkers, Chadni Chawk and Gawsia markets launched counter attack on the students triggering a fierce clash that spilled over onto Science Laboratory Crossing to New Market disrupting traffic for hours.Both the sides swooped on themselves with iron rods and bamboo sticks and brickbats leaving 30 people injured.Seven critically injured were taken to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).”The shopkeepers have beaten a fellow student after an altercation triggering the clash,” Rafiqul Islam, a student of Dhaka College, told The New Nation on Thursday evening. He said the traders cannot attack the students over a trifling matter. The students vandalised around 40 shops of the Dhanmondi Hawkers Market and four motorcycles were torched during the two-hour clash, alleged the traders.Following the clash, traders put shutters down of all the markets in the area and transport movement came to a halt on the roads in front of Dhaka College. Police brought the situation under control at 5:30pm.They lobbed several teargas shells and sound grenades to disperse the clashing people.Contacted, Deputy Commissioner (Ramna) Jasim Uddin said they brought the situation under control. Additional police were deployed in the area to avert any further clash, he added.
