A clash between students of three colleges in the capital left at least 10 injured.
The clash began around 1 pm today in front of Ideal College when some of their students got into an altercation with students of Dhaka College who were passing by Ideal College. Some students of Ideal College launched the attack based on previous hostility, according to witnesses.
The students of City College got involved at one stage when they joined the clash on the side of the Ideal College students.
As a result, the Science Lab crossing, which had just witnessed a fire in the morning, turned into a hotspot which created a long traffic jam in the surrounding areas like Nilkhet, Shahbagh and New Market.
During the clash extra personnel of police were moved to Science Lab crossing and New Market to bring the situation under control. It took till 4pm for the police to bring the situation under control and to allow vehicles to start moving again.
Dhaka College students said the students of Ideal College attacked finding them outnumbered.
Prof. Mohammad Yousuf, principal of Dhaka College, told UNB: "We do not know the exact number of injured students but we have admitted some of our students to the hospital and handed over some of our students to their parents."
"Generally the HSC students get involved in such clashes but today senior students also took part in the clash as a bus of Dhaka College named Bijoy Ekattor was vandalised," he added.
A few days ago some students of Ideal College vandalised the Dhaka College bus, in retaliation for what they described as bullying. In response, the students of Dhaka College extracted the name plate of Ideal College and brought it to their campus. Today's incident was the sequel to that.
"Such incidents are totally unexpected and it is painful that when such incidents take place we try to control our boys and pacify them, but the teachers of City College and Ideal College never do this. Without their help it is impossible to control such situations," he responded to a query of UNB.
"In this regard, we have to talk to law enforcement agencies and the education secretary to solve such problems," he added.
After the clash, Dhaka College announced a day off for no specific reason, although Prof. Yousuf told UNB they did it to normalise the situation and obstruct the flow of violence. "We only cancelled the classes, other activities like exams and Viva will be held accordingly," he said.
The newly appointed principal of Ideal College, Prof. Amjad Hossain, told UNB: "We could not identify any solid reason for this incident. Four to five students of our college have been injured today."
Asked what they were thinking about such incidents, he said, "We had a meeting with the teachers of Dhaka College. We have decided to punish those students who are involved in such incidents."
Ideal College also announced March 6 as a day off following today's clash.
Students and teachers admitted that such tensions are a regular phenomenon between the students of Dhaka College and City College but today's incident is different as the clash was initiated by the students of Ideal College.