Police baton-charge students of Agriculture Diploma in Ishwardi, Pabna, who are protesting by blocking roads. At least 20 students were injured in the incident.
The incident took place at around 2 pm on Tuesday (December 23) in the Alhaj Gol Chattar area of the upazila town.
According to eyewitnesses and students, students of the Agricultural Diploma Institute in Ishwardi came to the Alhaj intersection of the town around 12 noon on Tuesday and blocked the road with their 8-point demand. During this time, all types of traffic movement in Ishwardi along with Ishwardi-Rajshahi, Ishwardi-Dhaka and Kushtia was stopped. Due to the protest that lasted for about 2 hours, a massive traffic jam was created on both sides of the road. During this time, Russian officials and employees of the mega project Rooppur Nuclear Power Point were also trapped in the jam created.
At that time, when Ishwardi police arrived at the scene and requested the students to leave the road, they got into a scuffle with the police. At one point, the police were forced to charge the students with batons. Seeing the situation getting worse, 2 platoons of army personnel took up positions at the scene. With the strict intervention of the police and the army, the students left the scene and traffic on the road returned to normal after about 2 hours.
Jiban Sarkar, a student of the Agricultural Diploma Institute, said, "We had taken up positions on the road to press our demands. But the police members came and beat us up and removed us from the road."
Tanvir Islam, a student claiming to be a July fighter, said, "At least 20 of our students were seriously injured by the police members after being beaten up. All the injured are receiving treatment at the Ishwardi Upazila Health Complex."
Rifat Zaman, a 4th grade student, said, "We will go on a strict movement if the attack on us is not properly punished. If necessary, we will close the campus indefinitely."
When asked, Additional Superintendent of Police of Ishwardi Circle Pranab Kumar said, "The students of the Agricultural Diploma Institute were protesting by blocking the road yesterday as well. We had discussed their demands through the concerned people and sent them to the campus with the assurance of completion. Suddenly today they blocked the road again without any reason.
We explained their real purpose. Still, when they refused to leave the road, the police and army members coordinated and removed them from the road and normalized traffic flow."
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