Hanif Flyover toll plaza. - Photo: The Daily Star/ANN
DHAKA: Situation remains tense in the Shanir Akhra area after hours of intense clashes between law enforcers and protesters.
Protesters were present at the area even after midnight, reports our correspondent. A large number of law enforcers were also present.
The protesters set fire at multiple spots. Vehicular movement on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway remains suspended.
The clashes left scores injured. Of them, at least seven, including six with pellet wounds, took treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Many others sought treatment at local medical centres, according to our correspondent.
Meanwhile, according to media reports one person was shot dead during the clashes.
However, The Daily Star could not confirm it.
The clashes started around 3pm Tuesday (July 16) when protesting students brought out a procession on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway, protesting the police attacks on students in the last two days.
Witnesses said as the police tried to disperse them, protesters threw brickbats at them, prompting law enforcers to fire tear gas shells, sound grenades and shotgun pellets.
The police action eventually forced many of the protesters to take shelter in alleys in the nearby residential areas, resulting in a series of chases and counter-chases between the two groups.
Till the filing of this report, the clashes were raging on.
According to witnesses, police fired hundreds of rounds of tear gas shells, sound grenades and shotgun pellets at the protesters to control the situation.
They also said many locals joined the protesters while a large number of people affiliated with the ruling party were seen taking the side of cops during the clashes.
By 7pm, the entire area from Jatrabari Police Station to Kajla turned into a battlefield. Several vehicles were vandalised.
Around 8pm, a toll plaza of Hanif Flyover and an adjacent police box were set alight.
Protesters also set fire to tyres at several points.
Shahin Alam, senior station officer of Postogola Police Station, told The Daily Star that two fire engines rushed to the spot but could not reach there due to the clashes.
The fire died down only after it burnt the plaza into ashes, he said.
Vehicular movement on the flyover remains halted.
Around midnight, some vehicles, which were seized by police over time, kept in front of the Jatrabari Police Station were set on fire.
Seven wounded
With smoke and loud noise engulfing the area, two-year-old Rohit Mia started crying inside his home.
To calm him, his father, Babu Mia, took him in his arms and went downstairs.
He stood inside the collapsible gate and tried to understand what was happening.
Suddenly, pellets hit him and Rohit.
They were rushed to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital in the evening.
Rohit's mother, who brought them to the hospital with the help of locals, said, "They were inside the collapsible gate of the house.
Suddenly, they were hit by shotgun pellets, fired to disperse the protesters."
As of filing this report around 2.30am, Rohit is out of danger.
They were among the seven people who were brought to DMCH. Six of them had pellet wounds. The rest four are protesting students.
One of the injured, Faisal was brought to DMCH with multiple pellet injuries.
His condition is critical, said doctors at the hospital.
DMCH sources said Pias, a student of class VIII, and Monirul, a cloth trader, have been admitted to the hospital.
When this correspondent was at DMCH, he saw a teenager brought to the hospital in a critical condition from Jatrabari on a CNG-run-auto rickshaw early Wednesday.
Identified as Siam, 18, the unconscious teenager had pellet-like injury marks in his neck, said Bacchu Miah, inspector of police outpost at DMCH.
However, seeing police and a crowd at the hospital, those who brought Siam there, carried him back into the auto-rickshaw and drove away, he added.
Several media, however, reported that Siam had died.
Quota reform protesters left the Dhaka University campus this evening following clashes with police.
They left from the Nilkhet and Chankharpul intersections around 6.30pm, witnesses said.
Earlier, sporadic clashes took place between them and law enforcers, mainly police, for over two hours after 4pm.
At least 15 students were injured during the clashes as police fired rubber bullets, and lobbed tear gas shells and sound grenades at the quota protesters on the Dhaka University campus.
Cops also obstructed the demonstrators from performing funeral prayers in front of the Raju sculpture in TSC in the afternoon.
Later, they offered the prayers in front of the vice-chancellor's residence.
After the funeral, the students started a coffin procession on the campus, when police hurled sound grenades and tear gas shells on them one after another around 4.15pm near the Institute of Modern Language.
After the students dispersed, they gathered again in front of Surja Sen Hall.
Clashes then continued for an hour and police took position in front of the VC's residence.
While one group of students positioned itself in front of the hall, another moved towards Nilkhet.
Those near the Surja Sen hall retaliated to the police's sound grenades and tear gas shells with brink chunks.
After a while, they took shelter inside the hall around 5.30pm.
Police then took position in front of the hall when several DU teachers went there to negotiate with them, prompting them to stop lobbing shells and let the students leave the area.
Protesters then left the halls and some joined the group at Nilkhet around 6pm.
Police restarted the firing of tear gas shells there, to which the students responded by throwing brick chunks and stones at them.
After about half an hour, the students left the area, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, another group of protesters, who were positioned in front of the Shahidullah Hall, clashed with police for two hours from 4.30pm, before they left the area.
Law enforcers then took total control of the campus, but some students, mostly females, were seen leaving with their luggage even till 8pm.
In another development, several hundred Chhatra League and Jubo League men were positioned in front of the National Museum in the capital's Shahbagh and New Market Police Station near Nilkhet Wednesday afternoon.
Several leaders were heard delivering speeches on loud speakers at Shahbagh.
They searched bags and mobile phones of many students when they were leaving the campus through the two points and our correspondents saw them beating several of those found to be involved in the quota reform movement.
All acts of violence and use of force, especially resulting in the loss of lives, must be investigated and perpetrators should be held accountable, said UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk.
The statement came after at least six people including three students were killed and several hundreds injured in the ongoing clashes across the country over the last couple of days between quota reform protesters and police, Chhatra League members.
In a statement today, UNHR chief said freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are fundamental human rights.
He urges the authorities to engage with student protesters. - The Daily Star/ANN
