Sylhet Bureau :
Agitated students on Saturday gathered in front of the Sylhet’s Murari Chand (MC) College to protest Friday night’s heinous gang rape incident inside the college premise.
Protesters under the banner General Students congregated outside the college main gate and began their demonstration at 12 Noon. During the protest, the students burned tires and obstructed the Sylhet-Tamabil Highway which halted vehicular movement for several hours. Police were deployed to avoid untoward situation in the area.
The students withdrew themselves from the demonstration after an hour at 1pm following assurances from college Principal Saleh Ahmed of exemplary punishment for all those involved in the heinous crime. Saleh Ahmed said a three-member committee has already been formed by the college authority to ensure a proper investigation into the incident.Earlier on Friday night, a 19-year old woman was raped allegedly by Chhatra League men at the premises of the hostel of Sylhet’s MC College, when she was visiting the place with her husband.
According to sources, the BCL men confined the woman’s husband in a room and took the woman inside a car where she was gang-raped.
Police rescued the couple from the hostel premises and admitted the woman to the One Stop Crisis Centre of Sylhet’s Osmani Medical College Hospital around 10:30pm.
The victim’s husband filed a case against eight to nine people naming six with at Shahporan Police Station in connection with the incident.
The accused have been identified as – M Saifur Rahman, Shah Mahbuur Rahman Roû, Tarek Ahmad, Arjun Laskar, Robiul Islam, and Mahfyuur Rahman.
Six of the accused, except two outsiders, Tarek and Robiul, are the students of the college. However, according to campus sources, all of them are the students of MC College and staying at the hostel, although the institution and its dormitory were closed for months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
They are reportedly followers of Ranjit Sarker, former youth and sports affairs secretary of Sylhet district unit Aawmi League, but they do not hold a post as there are not a committees of the unit in the college.
They were staying at the hostel even though the dormitory was vacated after the college was closed due to the pandemic.
Soon after the incident, Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP) Deputy Commissioner (South) Mohammad Sohel Reja and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) 9 Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Samiul Alam visited the spot.
Police conducted a drive at the hostel early Saturday and recovered a locally-made gun, four machetes, and a knife from the room of Saifur. Jyotirmoy Sarker, Additional Deputy Commissioner (media) of Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP), said: “Police have identified the perpetrators and are now conducting drives to arrest them”.
