The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

At least 20 people, including teachers, students and police personnel were injured in a student-transport workers clash on Dhaka College campus yesterday.

Police lobbed teargas shells and baton charged the angry students after they put up barricades on the road following separate skirmishes with hawkers and transport workers at noon, according to source.

Witnesses said the trouble erupted when police went to clear roadblocks from in front of the college.

At one stage, unruly students of the college began hurling brickbats at the police, who retaliated with teargas and batons, source said.

Witnesses said riot police stormed into the college campus at about 3:00pm and charged baton and fired teargas shells on students and teachers in the classrooms.

Vice-Principal Dr Anwarul Alam Khan and teachers, Dr Alauddin, Waliullah, Farzana and Shaheed were among the injured in the police assault.Police also entered the college hostel dinning rooms and beat up the general students.

Police lobbed at least 50-teargas shells and clubbed the students on the spot.

The Officer in Charge of New Market Police Station Anisur Rahman said at least five policemen suffered injuries during the clashes.Tension on the college campus was prevailing till 4:30pm.

Sources said the incident, which sparked the clashes, took place at Nilkhet at about 1:30pm when a student and a hawker brawled over the price of books and the hawkers detained the student.

Tensions erupted as the news spread fast on the college campus.

In a second incident, two students of the college picked up a quarrel with a transport worker over increased bus fare. The students were travelling on the bus coming from Jatrabari to Nilkhet.

And a third round of brawl occurred when students quarrelled with the staff of a Laguna tempo, as the vehicle did not stop in front of the college.

All these incidents occurred in quick succession and enraged the general students to come out on the street and block the road as a mark of protest.