Media report said leaders and activists of Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) tortured a second year student, Walid Nihad, of the Department of Public Administration and Governance Studies of the university in a ‘torture cell’ on Sunday. The beating was so severe that the victim had to be admitted to the hospital. The student leaders threatened other students that they must join BCL if they want to continue their studies in the university. Otherwise, they have to suffer the same fate as Wahid Nahid.
Allegedly, these torture cells are used to indoctrinate newcomers, or chastise those that fall out of line or refuse to join this student party line. The BCL cadres even show off their political connections openly, and of their power that, they claim, supersedes that of the powers of the VC. Such practice must be stopped forthwith.
In a similar incident, BCL leaders and activists killed a student of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Abrar Farhad, about two and a half years ago. In another incident, Prof. Md Selim Hossain, provost of Lalon Shah Hall of Khulna Universitry of Engineering and Technology (KUET) was allegedly tortured him mentally over the selection of the dining manager of the hall on December last year. Later, prof. Selim was found dead at his residence, which general students and teachers alleged might have occurred due to mental torture.
Reportedly, when Walid Nihad went to meet one of his friends at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall at night on that day, the BCL leaders and activists called him to room no. 324 and pressured him to join the BCL. As he refused, they slapped and punched him to do so. The student fell ill and had to be hospitalised. This was not the first violence of BCL men at this university. In the last three years, they have reportedly harassed at least 50 students. They even misbehaved with the provost of the university’s Dolonchapa Hall. But the authorities did not file any case.
The university authorities must take strict action against those who have beaten and threatened to kill their classmates. They should be arrested immediately and brought to justice. We know the perpetrators get apprehensive if the crime is tried and the miscreants are punished.
