A Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader of Rajshahi University (RU) unit has been shot dead in his room at the Suhrawardy Hall by unidentified miscreants, police say. The killing took place around 1:30pm on Friday, Motihaar Police Station OC SM Rezaul Haq said. He identified the victim as Rustam Ali, a third-year student of the political science department. He was the general secretary of the Suhrawardy Hall unit of the organisation. Police said Ali was alone in the room number 230, during Jumma prayers when he was shot in his chest. He succumbed to his injuries at the Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH), OC Haq said. The BCL is the student affiliate of the ruling Awami League. Describing the incident, BCL’s RU unit chief Mizanur Rahman said Ali, General Secretary of Suhrawrdy Hall unit, was reading beside a window when he was hit by a bullet. “The miscreants might have shot him from outside the window,” the BCL leader said, adding students from nearby rooms had rushed Ali to hospital. The OC said Ali’s neighbours heard the sound of three gunshots. RMCH doctors said a bullet had pierced through the right side of Rustam’s chest and came out of his shoulder. The police could not say immediately who was behind the crime but university’s BCL leaders said Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, might have been involved. University unit General Secretary Towhid Al Tuhin said Shibir’s university unit President Ashraful Islam Emon had sent threatening messages to several BCL leaders on their cell phones on Thursday.
“BCL held a protest march at night, in which Ali also took part,” he said.
Tuhin said two students were recently beaten up in the Madar Baksh Hall suspecting them to be Shibir members. The threats were issued following that incident.
Shibir’s university unit Human Resource Secretary Ziauddin Babul, however, denied the allegations.
“Shibir has no connection with this incident. It may have been a result of their internal conflicts,” he said. — bdnews24.com
