At least three student organisations have protested the "Chhatra League attack" on a group of students in front of Bangabandhu Tower on Dhaka University campus. Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), Bangladesh Chhatra Odhikar Parishad and Bangladesh Chhatra Federation issued official protest notifications late last night against "BCL’s attack" earlier yesterday, calling it "heinous". DU Law Dept Students say BCL men attacked their discussion JCD’s notification -- signed by its DU unit president Gonsesh Chandra Ray Sahos and general secretary Nahiduzzaman Sipon -- reads, “Awami League’s student wing BCL thinks that everyone must follow the ideals of BCL and no one can oppose their ideology. That’s why they want to eradicate other ideologies by oppressing them. Such behaviour is nothing but a sign of fascism. We are protesting this heinous attack on students.” Central President of Chhatra Odhikar Parishad, Bin Yamin Molla, and General Secretary, Ariful Islam Adeeb, also condemned the attack and issued a notification on behalf of the organisation. “Chhatra League has created a reign of terror in the last 15 years. The latest of which is today's (yesterday) attack on a discussion about Ramadan at DU,” the notification reads. DU students protest SUST, NUST decision to ban Iftar parties Demanding immediate identification of the attackers and legal action against the culprits, they called upon all students across the country to stand against the "violent politics" of Chhatra League and strongly condemn such attacks. Following the attack, students of DU's Law Department staged an immediate protest rally at the base of Raju Bhashkorjo at 5:20 pm on Wednesday as all the attacked students are from the Law department’s 48 batch. Abrar Fahad event row: Protest rally held at Dhaka University

Former Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leaders have recounted the "violent politics" of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat e Islami, on university campuses. Three former BCL leaders, who "survived the brutal attacks of Islami Chhatra Shibir," shared their experiences at a webinar Tuesday. Abul Kalam Azad, a former Chittagong University BCL leader, said: "On May 15, 1999, as I left the exam hall, an armed gang of Shibir activists waylaid me and whisked me away by brandishing weapons. They dragged me to a brick kiln and beat me up mercilessly." "A senior student rushed to save me and begged the attackers to spare me. As I tried to flee, the Shibir activists dragged me back and almost smashed my head with bricks." Diagnosed with haemorrhage, Azad had to spend two years in treatment in Dhaka and India's Chennai. "I still suffer from mental trauma 23 years after the attack and have to consult doctors," Azad said. Tonmoy Ahmed, a former Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) student, has 130 stitches all over his body after he and his friend were mercilessly hacked with machetes near his village home during Eid. "Amar Desh published a cooked-up story implicating me and Arif Raihan Dweep, my fellow junior at BUET, for beating up an imam at a mosque on the campus who supplied food to a group of Islamists. In reality, we had just complained to the university about how an imam can be allowed to serve meals to radicals when the meals were meant for the students." A few days after the Amar Desh report, Dweep was hacked by a fellow student in broad daylight in his dormitory, said Tonmoy. "The attacker Meshbahuddin confessed before the magistrate that provocative sermons from a preacher invoked him to kill Dweep." Following 84 days of a battle between life and death Dweep succumbed to his injuries, Tonmoy added. "Months later when I was at my village home at Palashbari on Eid vacation, venturing out with friends at night, a microbus bearing Dhaka Metro number plate flanked by some bike riders emerged near a deserted market and attacked me," recalled Tonmoy. Tonmoy was rushed to a hospital where he underwent surgery. Even after he survived the surgery, attempts were on to eliminate him. A Shibir activist of the Rangpur Medical University unit was picked up when trying to gather information about his ward, he added.