Students of Comilla University allegedly assaulted a plain-clothes assistant sub-inspector (ASI), a constable and a police informant after suspecting them of impersonating policemen while searching two of their fellows in Cumilla city on Thursday night.
They were allegedly beaten while being taken from the city to the university campus on a university bus and also on the campus. Several videos of the incident have since gone viral on social media.
The incident took place around 7:30pm near Police Lines and Government Women's College in the city.
The policemen were identified as ASI Shyamal Saha and Constable Hanif of Kotwali Model Police Station, while the police informant was Zahid.
The two students who were searched were identified as Siam and Arpa, students of the 2023-24 academic session of the Department of Statistics.
According to accounts, the two students were returning after providing private tuition and walking through an alley in the Racecourse area to catch a university bus when three plain-clothes men stopped them and searched them.
When the students asked for their identity cards, the men failed to produce them. However, they identified themselves as police personnel and showed their walkie-talkies and handcuffs.
Suspecting them to be fake police officers, the students then took the three men onto a university bus and brought them to the campus.
ASI Shyamal alleged that the students forcibly put them on the bus and assaulted them on the way to the campus. They were also beaten after arriving there.
He claimed that they had only asked the two students about their identities. “After the students introduced themselves as university students, we let them go and apologised.”
Shyamal said when the students later asked to see their identity cards, they showed their walkie-talkies and handcuffs. They also offered to contact their colleagues on duty to verify their identities, he added.
The students later took the three men to the university proctor's office, where representatives of the university and police administration, teachers, students and journalists heard the accounts of both sides.
Comilla University Proctor Prof Dr Mohammad Shahadat Hossain said the three men could not show their identity cards when the students asked for them, which led to the incident.
"Instead of bringing someone to the campus in this manner, the students should have informed the relevant authorities or the university administration. Similarly, police personnel should carry their identity cards. Both sides had some shortcomings," he said.
The proctor said the matter had been resolved after hearing the accounts of both sides.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (Sadar South Circle) Mostain Billah Ferdous said the matter could have been resolved by calling the police station or the national emergency service 999 from the spot.
"Bringing police personnel to the campus on a bus is in no way desirable," he said.