At least 15 persons, including 11 teachers – four of them females — of Chittagong University were injured when activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir hurled crude bombs at two varsity buses in Chittagong on Wednesday.The Shibir men also pelted stones and vandalised the buses after the bomb attack. They were allegedly trying to foil the scheduled meeting of the syndicate by creating disturbance. Police arrested 25 Shibir activists on charge of attacking the teachers’ buses after conducting massive raid in the area.Witnesses said the incident took place in Chhararpool area of Fateyabad under Hathazari upazila. The protesters of Islami Chhatra Shibir, who have been observing indefinite strikes on the campus under the banner of general students, hurled crude bombs and vandalised the buses carrying the teachers from Chittagong city to the university.The injured were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital [CMCH] while condition of two teachers was stared to be critical.Of the injured, there are four female teachers; Sabrina Alam of Applied Physics, Electronics and Communication Engineering dept, Fatema-tuz Zohra of Sociology dept, Sonam Akhter of Bio-Chemistry dept, Shirin-ara Chowdhury of Management Studies dept.Besides, Tanveer Mohammad Haider of Finance and Banking dept, Md Taiyab Chowdhury of Marketing Studies and International Marketing dept, Sudipta Barua of Pali dept, Anwar Syed of Bengali dept, Ashrafuzzaman of Anthropology dept, student of marketing dept Amrita Nath, driver Mahbub Alam and his assistant Md Monir were also injured in the attack. “Three buses carrying teachers started from the city for the university about 22 kilometres away at about 9:00am. The buses came under the attack of Shibir cadres when reached near Fateyabad at about 10:00am,” HM Kamrul Hassan, teacher of Marketing dept, said.”At first all were admitted to varsity medical center. Later, eight have been referred to CMCH when their condition deteriorated,” Dr Kazi Mohammad Safiulllah, acting chief medical officer of CU, said.Meanwhile, Officer-in-Charge of Hathazari Police Station Md Ismail said, “We are conducting drive to arrest the culprits,” he said.”Shibir activists hurled crude bombs at the teachers’ buses. I was in one of the buses,” CU Bengali Dept Professor Anwar Saeed, who is also Provost of Suhrawardy Hall, said.Our Chittagong Bureau said: Islami Chhatra Shibir has been enforcing a strike under the banner of ‘general students’ from August 31 last demanding hand over two student halls to the allotted students.Several incidents of attacks on shuttle train and buses were reported earlier.CU teacher Union, CU Holud Dal of teachers and Chhatra League brought out procession after eruption of the news at the campus premises boycotting the classes.They demanded the immediate ban of Shibir and fundamental based politics in the campus. They also announced unrest program till banning Shibir and a gathering on Thursday in front of Register Building. Benu Kumar Dey, President of CU teachers’ association in a protest meeting also blamed Shibir men for attacking the teachers’ buses. Over 100 teachers were also present at the demonstration.”We have directed the law enforcers to take tough action against the culprits,” Vice-Chancellor Anwarul Azim Arif said.
