BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Wednesday described the attacks on female leaders of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) on Dhaka University Campus by Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) as a 'cowardly' act.

“The Prime Minister has made Chhatra League men cowards, terrorists and extortionists. The way Chhatra League cadres attacked the female students at Dhaka University yesterday (Tuesday) was a cowardly act,” he said.

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Rizvi was speaking at a human chain programme in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan central office arranged by Jatiyatabadi Mohila Dal in protest against what it said issuing a death threat to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

BNP said that the prime minister’s recently reported remark that Khaleda should be pushed into the river from the Padma Bridge is tantamount to a death threat. 

The Awami League, however, said BNP is misinterpreting the PM’s remark.

Rizvi wondered how the leaders and activists of the ruling party student body could beat JCD female leaders as students should have a sense of humanity.

“I visited a hospital yesterday (Tuesday) where Mansura and Trina (JCD female leaders) were groaning in pain. They are students of Dhaka University,” the BNP leader said. 

He said the videos on the attacks on the female JCD leaders have gone viral on social media. “No one but cowards can hit girls in this brutal way.”

The BNP leader said many other JCD leaders and activists were also beaten by the BCL leaders and activists on the DU campus. “Of them, the condition of Rashed and Afsan was critical.”

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Rizvi strongly protested and condemned the attack and demanded immediate arrest and legal action against those who attacked the JCD leaders and activists, including the female ones.

At least 35 people were injured in clashes between the activists of BCL and JCD on the Dhaka University campus on Tuesday.