Former Railway Minister Suranjit Sengupta's caught in red-handed again after nine months. It is Rtv who blew up the bomb by telecasting the interview of Whistleblower driver Azam Khan and the splinters of the bomb spreaded allover . . Azam Khan said the money tashed sack was going to Mr Gupta’s house. After breaking the news it has become again talk of the country. All newspapers published the item on Saturday with importance. Lets see go through it.
The Daily Star on Saturday, 6 October published the news titled `Railwaygate Scandal : Tk 74 lakh was going to house of Suranjit. (driver Azam ) Shows up 6 months after his 'disappearance'

The report said `Appearing on the TV for the first time since the April 9 railwaygate scandal, whistleblower driver Azam Khan has said the Tk 74 lakh stashed in his car was being taken to the then railway minister Suranjit Sengupta's house.
“The money was being carried to Suranjit Sengupta's residence. But, I foiled the attempt. Money was taken [to Suranjit's house] several times before as well,” he said in an interview with Rtv aired first on Thursday night and throughout yesterday.
Azam, driver of Suranjit's ex-assistant personal secretary (APS) Omar Faruq Talukder, had been missing since the scandal surfaced.
Around 11:30pm on April 9, Azam drove Faruq's microbus into Pilkhana, and blew the whistle that there was illegal money in the vehicle.
Apart from Faruq, railway's general manager (east) Yusuf Ali Mridha and Dhaka division security commandant Enamul Huq were on the microbus. Faruq was sacked and Mridha and Enamul were suspended following the incident.
After the vehicle entered Pilkhana, the Border Guard Bangladesh detained the four for that night but freed them the next day.
“No, no, no. I had no link with anyone. I didn't take money from anybody promising jobs. Though later rumours were spread about me,” he said in the exclusive interview with Rtv's Bayezid Ahmed.
As he was driving into the BGB headquarters through gate No 4, Faruq asked him where he was going. “I said, 'sir, this is bribe money. Money taken from railway jobseekers. I will have you arrested with this money'," Azam told Rtv.
"Faruq said this is not right…. Then they offered me Tk 5 lakh and asked me to take them out of the gate. Later, Faruk offered me half the amount…. But I said, 'no, sir.' Finally, he offered me the whole amount."
Upon counting in the next morning, it turned out that there was Tk 74 lakh in the car, Azam said, adding that the trio -- Faruq, Mridha and Enamul -- along with the money went away in the car driven by another person they had already managed to have brought.
Initial reports said there was Tk 70 lakh in the car, which was part of the "bribe money" collected from jobseekers in the railway.

Faruk gave conflicting statements about the amount and source of the money. On April 10, he told UNB that there was Tk 25-30 lakh in his car and the money belonged to his brother-in-law. But in a written statement to the ACC on April 18, he said he was carrying Tk 70 lakh in his car that night. Of the sum, he earned Tk 45 lakh practising law and got the rest from his expatriate brother-in-law. He deposited Tk 70 lakh in his account with Mercantile Bank's Dhanmondi branch on April 11.

In the four-minute interview, Azam said one Major Mashiur Rahman was involved in the recruitment business. “As far as I know he was involved in a Tk 3 crore recruitment deal. He wanted to have several hundred people appointed in the railway through Omar Faruq.”
According to him, Faruq, a political appointee of the former rail minister, headed a syndicate of the recruitment business.
“I heard them talk in the car that they would give Tk 10 crore to the minister from the recruitment business. And 600 'personal' people of Suranjit Sengupta would be recruited."
However, it was not clear from the interview, given at an unspecified open field, if that discussion took place on the night of April 9 or on other occasions.
"They want to put the blame on the government. The minister was involved in the scam. There was a syndicate. They threatened me, saying that the government was involved in this."
The railwaygate scandal led to the resignation of Suranjit Sengupta as minister on April 16, barely five months after he took office. However, the government in a dramatic move made him minister without portfolio the following day.
Suranjit, however, termed Azam's interview a "media creation".
“Why didn't he say this before? Why is he telling this now?" he told Rtv yesterday.
When pointed out by Rtv that Azam did not do so as Faruq and his men threatened his family on many occasions, Suranjit said, "This is pointless. 'Bogus story'. This is all being done to malign me. This is a media creation."
Earlier on April 15, Yusuf Ali Mridha in a written statement to the ACC said he along with Faruq and Enamul was going to Suranjit's Jigatola residence that night.

And though a government investigation found irregularities in the recruitment in the railway's east zone, a railway departmental report on May 13 gave a clean chit to Suranjit Sengupta, saying he had no involvement in the scandal.
According to railway sources, some 1,128 people were given jobs in the railway's east zone in the last one year. Allegations are Yusuf and Faruq took Tk 3 to 5 lakh from each of the jobseekers.
The government probe committee also found that Mridha and four other railway officials "changed the exam papers of many disqualified jobseekers in exchange for money".

AZAM'S WIFE'S INTERVIEW
Earlier on April 17, Azam's wife Swapna Aktar told Maasranga television that Faruq had been forcing Azam to drive the car with stashes of bribe money.
She said Azam had told her a few days ago that he would not carry illegal money any more.
“I told him, 'You are only a driver. You shouldn't bother about whether it is bribe money,'" Swapna said, adding, "But he [Azam] told me that he was unable to bear the burden any longer.”
On Saturday Rtv telecasted the second part of the interview and the Daily Star published on the same day in their online edition. The headline was `Railway money used in Soumen's telecom business: Azam’
The report said, `Driver Azam Khan, the whistleblower of railwaygate scandal, claimed that railway's money had been used in the telecom business of former railway minister Suranjit Sengupta's son Soumen Sengupta.

"Discussion about the business of Suranjit's son Soumen Sengupta took place in front of me," Azam, driver of Siranjit's sacked-assistant personal secretary (APS) Omar Faruq Talukder, said in the last part of a two-part interview with Rtv aired on Saturday.
Azam, who appeared in the interview for the first time since the April 9 railwaygate scam, had been missing since the scandal surfaced.
On April 9, Azam drove Faruq's microbus into Pilkhana, and blew the whistle that there was 74 lakh cash stashed in the vehicle.

Apart from Faruq, railway's general manager (east) Yusuf Ali Mridha and Dhaka division security commandant Enamul Huq were in the microbus. Faruq was sacked and Mridha and Enamul were suspended following the incident.
After the vehicle entered Pilkhana, the Border Guard Bangladesh detained the four for that night but freed them the next day when their identification was confirmed.
Not only as minister, Suranjit had been involved in several grafts involving recruitment and transfer when he was the head of Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Azam told the private television.
The driver claimed that Suranjit used to phone State Minister for Law Quamrul Islam and tell him, "I am sending my APS. There are some quotas."
If Suranjit Sengupta had given five (names), the APS would add five more and get money, Azam claimed.
After the railwaygate scandal, the APS offered Azam ten to twenty lakh taka on condition of saving the then railway minister, the driver said.

"The APS told me that if you agree with us, you will get a good amount but I (Azam) told him that it was not possible for me."
Earlier, the APS told Azam that from next time, they would collect money through a bank account of a Suranjit's friend as it had become risky to carry the money in car.
"I had targeted to get them arrested with the money. As they decided not to carry money in my car anymore, it was the last chance for me. So, I drove the car into the Pilkhana on April 9," he said.
Azam quoted the APS, "We both know where the money was going. I have taken all the responsibilities (for the money). Do not implicate any others. Do not implicate Suranjit Sengupta. Implicate me. You will say, the money is mine."
Apprehending that he might be killed or abducted if he comes out of the hideout, Azam appealed to the prime minister and the home minister for securing his life.
"I feel bad. I want to see my father and mother," he said.
Seeking Suranjit's comment, the Rtv contacted him but Suranjit, the minister without portfolio, termed all the allegations baseless.
"What is the meaning to tell all this now? Want to drown the government? He has been called by the Anti-Corruption Commission several times. He did turn up. Why did he not utter a single word in last six months?" Suranjit said.
And though a government investigation found irregularities in the recruitment in the railway's east zone, a railway departmental report on May 13 gave a clean chit to Suranjit Sengupta, saying he had no involvement in the scandal.
According to railway sources, some 1,128 people were given jobs in the railway's east zone in the last one year. Allegations are Yusuf and Faruq took Tk 3 to 5 lakh from each of the jobseekers.

The government probe committee also found that Mridha and four other railway officials "changed the exam papers of many disqualified jobseekers in exchange for money".
The Daily Sun write `Opening a Pandora’s Box of midnight money scandal that led to the resignation of Suranjit Sengupta from railways ministry, missing driver Azam Khan has said on private TV channel RTV that the money was being carried to the minister’s residence.

Azam Khan has been missing since the minister’s sacked APS, Omar Faquque Talukder, suspended Railway Genneral Manager Yusuf Ali Mridha and Railways Police Commandant Enamul Haque were confined at Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) gate on April 9 midnight with Tk 70 lakh.

Due to his desperate move, Omar Faquque and others were held at the BGB gate and now he is disclosing the story behind the scandal.

Speaking on the TV channel from an undisclosed location, Azam Khan said the above personnel were going to Suranjit Sengupta’s residence with the huge amount of money to bribe the minister to get several hundred people appointed in the railways department.

“So far I know GM Mridha entered into a contract with APS Faquque to secure the job with the help of the minister”, he said.

Azam referred to a conversation of APS Faquque, GM Mridha and Commandant Enamul Haque that Tk 10 crore will be given to the minister in exchange for appointment of 600 people.

The scandal resulted in a critical situation for the government, forcing Suranjit Sengupta to resign from the post of railways minister on April 16, 2012. APS Faquque was sacked while GM Mridha and Commandant Enamul Haque were suspended. Later the trio remained fugitive for some days to avoid arrest.

On August 14, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed cases against them as they concealed information in their submitted wealth statements.

Besides, ACC has approved filing another case against Yusuf Ali Mridha for his involvement in railway appointments.

Azam said, “When they were making it to the minsiter’s house, I turned the incident into another direction.”

He said the above mentioned officials started their journey with the money from house no 3 located at road no 5 in Dhamamondi.

Narrating the incident of that night he said “When I drove the car to GBG gate, they asked me where I was going. I told them as you are carrying bribe money, I have entered the car to the gate to get you arrested.”

He said at first the officials offered him Tk 5 lakh, then half and finally the whole amount to drive the car out of GBG gate and let them go free.

“I turned down their request, saying that I won’t be an accomplice in the bribery.”

He mentioned the name of some Mashiur who is involved in this appointment business.

“He [Mashiur] handed over a cheque for Tk 3 crore to the APS to secure the job of several hundred people in railways department”, he added.

Azam said on several occasions, the persons made it to the minister’s house with bribe money.

He said the APS and others tried to shift the responsibility to the government. “They asked me to drop the matter on the pretext that the government is involved in the incident.”

“But I know the Prime Minister has a stand against corruption. She wants that no corrupt goes scot-free.”

He made a plea to the government to protect him as he is hiding to avoid the wrath of the above mentioned officials.

In an instant reaction, Suranjit Sengupta rejected the statement made by driver Azam.

“No, these are false and fabricated allegations against me. These are bogus stories created by the media.”

The minister without portfolio questioned as to why driver Azam did not make his statement to the inquiry committee earlier.

“Why did he not go through investigation process? He has been absconding for long. From where has he appeared now? Everything is designed to make me scapegoat”, he told reporters.
Women Hurting Women :
On September 29 The New York Times published an article named `Women Hurting Women’, written by Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof who won Pulitzer Prize two times.
Only The Daily Sun here in Dhaka published the story as it is from NY Times on 1 October. The Daily Star, the New Age and The Independent did not touch the matter.
What was in the story? Lets see here from the NY times.
It would be nice to think that women who achieve power would want to help women at the bottom. But one continuing global drama underscores that women in power can be every bit as contemptible as men.
Sheikh Hasina, prime minister of Bangladesh, is mounting a scorched-earth offensive against Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank and champion of the economic empowerment of women around the world. Yunus, 72, won a Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work in microfinance, focused on helping women lift their families out of poverty.
Yet Sheikh Hasina’s government has already driven Yunus from his job as managing director of Grameen Bank. Worse, since last month, her government has tried to seize control of the bank from its 5.5 million small-time shareholders, almost all of them women, who collectively own more than 95 percent of the bank.
What a topsy-turvy picture: We see a woman who has benefited from evolving gender norms using her government powers to destroy the life’s work of a man who has done as much for the world’s most vulnerable women as anybody on earth.
The government has also started various investigations of Yunus and his finances and taxes, and his supporters fear that he might be arrested on some pretext or another.
“It’s an insane situation,” Yunus told me a few days ago at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, sounding subdued instead of his normally exuberant self. “I just don’t know how to deal with it.”
If the government succeeds in turning Grameen Bank into a government bank, Yunus said, “it is finished.”
Sheikh Hasina, in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, initially agreed to be interviewed by me in a suite at the Grand Hyatt. At the last minute she canceled and refused to reschedule.
Perhaps none of this should be surprising. Metrics like girls’ education and maternal mortality don’t improve more when a nation is led by a woman. There is evidence that women matter as local leaders and on corporate boards, but that doesn’t seem to have been true at the national level, at least not for the first cohort of female leaders around the world.
Bangladesh is actually a prime example of the returns from investing in women. When it separated from Pakistan in 1971, it was a wreck. But it invested in girls’ education, and today more than half of its high school students are female — an astonishing achievement for an impoverished Muslim country.

All those educated women formed the basis for Bangladesh’s garment industry. They also had fewer births: the average Bangladeshi woman now has 2.2 children, down from 6 in 1980. Bringing women into the mainstream also seems to have soothed extremism, which is much less of a concern than in Pakistan (where female literacy in the tribal areas is only 3 percent).
To her credit, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spoken up for Yunus: “I highly respect Muhammad Yunus, and I highly respect the work that he has done, and I am hoping to see it continue without being in any way undermined or affected by any government action,” she said earlier this year. Two former secretaries of state, George Shultz and Madeleine Albright, have also called on Sheikh Hasina to back off.
She shows no sign of doing so. One theory is that she is paranoid and sees Yunus as a threat, especially since he made an abortive effort to enter politics in 2007. Another theory is that she is envious of his Nobel Peace Prize and resentful of his global renown.
Sheikh Hasina is disappointing in other ways. She has turned a blind eye to murders widely attributed to the security services. My Times colleague Jim Yardley wrote just this month about a labor leader, Aminul Islam, who had been threatened by security officers and whose tortured body was found in a pauper’s grave.
Yunus fans are signing a Change.org petition on his behalf, but I’d like to see more American officials and politicians speak up for him. President Obama, how about another photo op with Yunus?

I still strongly believe that we need more women in leadership posts at home and around the world, from presidential palaces to corporate boards. The evidence suggests that diverse leadership leads to better decision making, and I think future generations of female leaders may be more attentive to women’s issues than the first.
In any case, this painful episode in Bangladesh is a reminder that the struggle to achieve gender equality isn’t simply a battle between the sexes.
It is far more subtle. Misogyny and indifference remain obstacles for women globally, but those are values that can be absorbed and transmitted by women as well as by men.
Attack on Buddhists community of Ramu Upazila of Cox’s Bazar district took place on Saturday midnight. This is why no english newspaper could publish the news on Sunday, 30 September edition. The news was published on Monday 1st October.
The Daily Star is always very loud about minority issue. They published six stories on Tuesday, October 2, 2012 in front page. Even they kept one story titled `Please save my future generation’ consecutive two days in their online version on October 2 and 3, though there was nothing so important in the item.

Again BCL :

The two gunmen above in the picture were the activists of Bangladesh Chhtatra League (BCL), student wing of the ruling party Bangladesh Awami League. They were chasing and firing the activist of Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, during a clash between BCL and ICS on Rajshai University Campus on 1st October 2012. Almost newspapers published the photo in front page and mentioned the armed men were BCL activist in their photo caption. Among four English newspaper ( Star, New Age, Independetn and Sun) only the New Age mentioned the identity of gunmen. The Daily Star, Independent and The Sun instead of mentioning them BCL armed activist they wrote `Youths brandish firearms on Rajshahi University campus during a clash between Chhatra League and Islami Chhatra Shibir men yesterday.

The Daily Star tried to say ICS was responsible for the clash, while their sister bangla newspaper Prothom Alo made it very clear that it was BCL who was responsible for the clash. Prothom Alo did the report very much correctly maintaining objectivity. No newspaper could publish a photo of ICS gunmen but about all newspapers wrote ICS activists fired gun. The Daily Independent report was most biased and nakedly, unashamedly started the report “Armed ICS activists........” They totally dubbed ICS for the clash and said it was ICS who ensued the clash.

New Age’s report was comparatively objective . Lets first see what they wrote.
“At least 20 were injured as Chhatra League and Islami Chhatra Shibir clashed in Rajshahi University on Tuesday. Seven of them were injured with bullets as Chhatra League men fired gunshots.
Witnesses said that leaders and activists of Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islam that has been out of the campus since February 2010 after Shibir men had killed a Chhatra League man on the
campus, tried to enter the campus in the morning.
As several hundred Shibir men gathered at various points on the campus about 11:00am, in a show of their existence on the campus in view of the admission tests scheduled to begin on October 4, Chhatra League activists, equipped with firearms and lethal weapons, chased the Shibir men in front of the university library half an hour later, leading to the clash that continued for an hour and a half.

Chhatra League men, the witnesses said, fired a hundred rounds, in which four Shibir men were wounded.
The injured are the organisation’s university unit general secretary Saifuddin Yahya and activists Sharirul Islam, Ariful Islam and Jahangir.
The university unit Chhatra League general secretary Abu Hossian, however, claimed that three of their activists had been injured with bullet as Chhatra Shibir fired gunshots.
He named Takim, Tuhin and Shetu as being wounded.
Others of Shibir injured in the clash are Jahirul Islam, Al-Amin and Shariful Islam of the Islamic history, Mobarak Hossain of law, Jahangir Hossain of folklore, Arif Hossain of management studies and the university unit vice-president Akheruzzaman Takim.
Nabiul Islam, a student of the language department who is said to belong to neither of the groups, was also injured.

The Motihar police said that they had rescued Shariful Islam and Jahangir and sent them to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. Others were admitted to the university medical centre and private clinics.
Chhatra League men later drove the Shibir men out of the campus about 12:30pm and they hunted for Shibir men in places across the campus and beat up some general students suspecting them to be Shibir activists. Five more were injured in the incidents.
Chhatra League men at one point went on the rampage, damaging the proctor’s office, officer’s room, the public relations office, the Shahidullah arts building and the Sayed Ismail Hossain Siraji building. They also damaged a university bus.
They vandalised the gate of the vice-chancellor’s house and defaced the name plate saying that it was under the patronisation of the administration that Shibir men dared to enter the campus.

BCL men assaulted the proctor Chowdhury Muhammad Zakaria and his assistants. They dragged the proctor grabbing him by the collar out of the vice-chancellor’s house.
Assistant proctor Zulfikar Ali later told reporters that the BCL activists had assaulted the proctor and five assistant proctors as they asked the activists not to damage the university bus.
Lawmen later controlled the situation. Additional deputy commissioner of the Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, SM Moniruzzaman, said that they had reinforced police deployment to head off trouble on the campus.

Students’ adviser Golam Sabbir Sattar told New Age that the authorities would talk with student leaders so that such a situation did not recur.
The university unit Chhatra League president, Ahmed Ali, told New Age that the Shibir men were trying to stop admission tests in the university.
The university unit Shibir president, Ashraful Islam, however, brushed aside the allegations and said that Chhatra League had attacked them without any provocation.
Now lets see what the Daily Star wrote. “At least 25 students were injured, three of them bullet-hit, in a fierce clash between Islamic Chhatra Shibir and Bangladesh Chhatra League activists at Rajshahi University (RU) yesterday.
Police arrested 15 activists of Shibir after conducting raids in different dormitories soon after the incident.
The clash ensued around 11:30am when Shibir activists threw brickbats at a BCL procession near Shahidullah Arts building, witnesses said.
Following the incident, BCL men chased the Shibir activists, and a running battle between the members of two groups started.
Both the groups used sticks, iron rods and sharp weapons during the chase and counter chase.
The feuding groups also traded nearly 50 gunshots inside the campus and at the RU's main gate that left a BCL man and two Shibir activists injured.
Some of the activists of the pro-Jamaat student organisation, who took shelter inside the Central Library after being chased, were mercilessly beaten up by the BCL men.

The BCL men also drove Shibir men out of the campus and put up barricades on the Rajshahi-Dhaka highway for around 30 minutes.
Around 12:30pm, BCL men entered the campus and damaged two university buses in front of the administrative building.
Later, the activists of the pro-AL student body ransacked the residence of the vice-chancellor for allegedly allowing the Shibir activists to establish their dominance in the campus.
RU Proctor Chowdhury Mohammad Zakaria was also assaulted by the BCL men when he tried to quell the unrest.
The bullet-hit BCL activist Nabiul Islam Lipon, Shibir activists Jahangir Hossain and Shariful Islam were admitted to Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH).
The other injured, who were admitted to RMCH, include Shibir activists Mosaddek Hossain, Mobarak Hossain, BCL general secretary of RU unit Akhtaruzzaman Takim.
Jahangir, Shariful, Mosaddek and Mobarak were later shown arrested along with 11 other activists of Shibir, police sources said.
Ahmed Ali, BCL RU unit president, claimed that the Shibir men had attacked the BCL procession to establish their supremacy on the campus. He also blamed the RU authorities for failing to ensure students' security on the campus.
Ashraful Alam Emon, Shibir RU unit president, however, said BCL men, without any provocation, attacked the Shibir activists while they were taking preparations to bring out a procession.

“We tried to resist the attack, but police assisted the BCL men”, he said.
He claimed that six Shibir men, including its general secretary Saifuddin Yahya, were injured by bullets.
Abu Hossain Bipu, BCL RU unit general secretary, said Shibir activists brought sacks of brickbats inside the campus yesterday morning, and had been taking preparations to foil their procession.
He alleged that though the proctor had caught some of the Shibir activists red-handed with the sacks, he did not hand them over to law enforcers, but rather took an undertaking from them.
M Moniruzzaman, additional police commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, said student organisations always tried to establish their supremacy on the campus through targeting the admission process for the first year honours every year.

Now lets see the example of a biased report on the event and it’s from the Independent who made the item lead. They wrote :
“Armed activists of the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) and Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) fought a pitched battle on the Rajshahi University (RU) campus Tuesday, firing more than 20 rounds of gunshots and bursting Molotov cocktails, seriously injuring 35 people including journalists and policemen. At least five students, including the RU unit general secretary of the ICS and two activists of the BCL, were stabbed during the clash for supremacy on the campus. The police took 12 students into custody.
Those stabbed were identified as Saifuddin Yeahia, ICS general secretary and a student of master's in Arabic; Ibrahim, a student of Islamic studies; Al Amin, an ICS activist studying Islamic history and culture; Rabiul, a student of language, and Takim, a philosophy dropout and expelled vice-president of the BCL's RU unit. The injured also included Johurul, Jahangir, Shoriful, Mobarok, Mamun, ICS activist Wahid and BCL's Tuhin.

The injured were admitted to the university medical centre, Rajshahi Medical College Hospital and different clinics.
To bring the situation under control, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police were deployed on the campus. However, in the midst of all this, admission-seekers flocked the campus as the admission tests were scheduled for October 4. This caused more worry for the law enforcement agencies.

Tension mounted on the campus in the morning when several hundred ICS leaders and activists entered the RU campus and organised a show of strength. When BCL leaders and activists also took out a procession on the campus, ICS activists allegedly fired four blank rounds at the campus bus-stand.
In the afternoon BCL activists armed with lethal weapons clashed with ICS activists on the RU campus, injuring at least 25 on both sides. Several rounds of shots were fired and a number of Molotov cocktails were burst on the campus during the clash.
According to witnesses, some BCL activists beat up an ICS activist near Rabindra Bhaban around 12.15 pm. BCL and ICS activists chased each other following the clash. Chanting slogans, activists of both groups then gathered in front of the central library, Shahidullah Kala Bhaban and at Tukitaki Chattar.
After a while, the BCL activists, led by their expelled vice-president Akheruzzaman Takim, expelled organising secretary Touhid Al Tuhin, organising secretary Johirul Islam Jakir, vice-president Firoj and Sudipto Salam, attacked the ICS activists. The BCL students were armed with guns, swords and hockey sticks, and fired 20 to 25 rounds and hurled Molotov cocktails, the witnesses added.
The ICS activists retaliated with bricks, stones and Molotov cocktails.
A vendor at Tukitaki Chattar told The Independent that Takim, Tuhin, Atiq and Salam fired several shots during the clash in front of the central library. Later, BCL supporters chased the ICS activists out of the campus and marched through the main streets chanting anti-ICS slogans.

Irate BCL leaders and activists also assaulted university proctor Prof. Chowdhury Mohammad Zakaria in his office, and vandalised the public relations office and two university buses. They also attacked a photo journalist and two policemen. The BCL members accused the proctor of harbouring ICS activists on the campus.
Aminul Islam of Motihar police station said that on Monday night Abdus Salam, joint secretary of the BCL (RU unit), lodged complaints against more than 50 unidentified leaders and activists of the ICS.
According to Ahmed Ali, president of the BCL (RU unit), the student outfit had sought cooperation of the police to restore peace on the campus. He further said that the BCL would not let anyone create anarchy at the university.

Police sources confirmed that Mobarak Hossain Babu, a third-year student of law and an ICS activist, had been picked up from the campus in connection with the violence.
Denying the manhandling of the proctor, BCL president (RU unit) Ahmad Ali said that ICS activists had tried to create anarchy on the campus before the admission tests. He also demanded that the RU authorities ban Shibir.

Asharaful Alam Imon, ICS president (RU unit) said BCL activists beat up ICS supporters and fired at them without any provocation. For the sake of admission tests and general students, the university authorities should see to it that student bodies can co-exist and ensure security on the campus, he said.
RU student adviser Prof. Golam Sabbir Sattar Tapu told reporters that he would discuss the matter with both BCL and ICS leaders to keep the situation under control, so that admission tests could be held peacefully. RU Pro-VC Prof. Mohammad Nurullah told The Independent that he expected the admission tests to begin on the scheduled date without any hindrance. He also urged all concerned to cooperate for restoring peace on the campus.