Staff Reporter:
Student protesters engaged in hours of clashes with police in Bogura municipality on Saturday, before eventually occupying key points of the town by forcing law enforcers to retreat.
Chases and counter-chases were continuing intermittently past 6.30pm.
The students were protesting demanding the resignation of government and justice for the killings of their fellow classmates during the recent quota reform movement.
At 3pm, students started gathering at the Sat Matha intersection of the town. Guardians and teachers of different educational institutions, including the Government Azizul Haque College, also joined the procession.
At one point a section of the huge procession marched towards the town’s Nababbari area. When crossing the Bogura Zilla School, students repeatedly called the policemen stationed at the school “fraud,” resulting a tense standoff that eventually saw police firing tear gas, rubber bullets and sound grenades at the procession.
The students responded with brick chips, and in a short time, different parts of the town turned into a battleground. As police retreated into the Zilla School, the students went past and threw brickbats at an armoured personnel carrier (APC) of police as well as a police plaza.
However, Bogura Zilla Police Additional Superintendent Snigdha Akter claimed the students attacked police without any provocation. She said police tried to tackle the situation using tear gas, but did not mention whether rubber bullets and sound grenades were also used.
Bogura Sadar Police Station Officer-in-Charge Saihan Waliullah said his force got trapped within the Zilla School, and could not comment on the situation outside.
