[Dhaka Tribune] Hours after the detention of a total of 42 suspects in an overnight massive raid at a dormitory of Bangla College in the capital's Mirpur, 10 of them, including leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ...
, were shown placed in durance vile
Please don't kill me!
for possessing firearms, bullets and sharp weapons while the rest 32 were freed in the afternoon.
Intra-party feuds through a series of violent festivities among two groups of BCL, students' wing of ruling Awami League, in last few weeks over the capturing of dormitories and gathering of huge arms and weapons for further clash prompted police conducting the raid at 'Principal Abul Kashem Dormitory' from late Tuesday night to early hours of Wednesday.
A foreign made pistol, 14 rounds of bullets, 3 magazines, 21 machetes and huge iron rods were recovered from different rooms during the drive in participation with huge contingent of forces led by the personnel from Darussalam cop shoppe from 11:00pm on Tuesday to 2:00am Wednesday when a total of 42 youths were detained.
The detained people were first taken to Darussalam cop shoppe and later to Mirpur cop shoppe for verification through primary interrogation, said Rafiqul Islam, OC of Darussalam cop shoppe.
The OC said a case was filed against those 10 youths for possessing firearms, ammunitions and weapons.
"On information of the gathering of firearms, bullets and sharp weapons at the dormitory, the raid was conducted as part of the pre-cautionary measures to avert festivities and deterioration of law and order situation", said Imtiyaz Ahmed, Deputy Commissioner at Mirpur Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, the DC said: "All the 42 detained youths were the students of Bangla College. Some of them were detained for possessing arms-weapons while the rest for staying illegally."
"At least 10 BCL leaders and activists were shown arrested as they were found guilty for gathering and possessing firearms and various weapons while the rest 32 were handed over to the principal of the college and senior teachers after they were found not guilty."
The DC said all of those 10 arrested BCL men have the criminal records and were also responsible for gathering of firearms and weapons, which were recovered at the dormitory during the drive.
He said a tense situation was prevailing in the college campus and among the students following the feuds among the groups of the BCL men, who also had been getting prepared for clashing with each other over the control of power and establishment of supremacy.
Asked, the DC said those 32 general students were detained as they could not show any evidence and documents about their studentships while they had also no permission of staying at the dormitory.
Replying to a query, Imtiyaz Ahmed said two groups of BCL had locked into a clash two days ago and they were getting prepared for further clash.
Sources said a large number of the detained youths belonged to the BCL. Some of them had been staying at the dormitory as the paying guests in exchanges of money to a section of BCL men.
Earlier on Monday night, two groups of BCL men fought pitched battle at Textiles University at Tejgaon over the occupation of dormitory leaving around 10 students injured.