On Tuesday afternoon, some women were sexually assaulted near Shuhrawardy Udyan on Dhaka University campus as they came to celebrate the Pahela Baishakh.
Some students` wings of leftist political parties on Wednesday brought out procession to protest the sexual assault on women on the Dhaka University campus. The Chhatra Union and Progotishil Chhatra Jote, two leftist student wings, brought out a procession and demanded arrest of the people involved in the incident.
Liton Nandi, president of Chhatra Union Dhaka University unit, also was injured by the miscreants as he tried to save the victims.
The protesters alleged that negligence of duty by the police members and the university authorities help sustain this trend.
Liton said a group of 30-35 young men was harassing few women amidst the crowd.
The attackers were trying to strip the dress of the victims and also succeeded in doing so, he added.
“I put off my punjabi and gave it to a woman. Another woman just fainted. The youths were doing these for quite some time in the crowd,” Nandi said.
“But the university proctor and the police members did not come in right time, although we informed them of it. Later, our party members found the proctor playing video games in his office,” he added.
However, Nandi could not identify any of the assaulters immediately.
He suspected that most of them were outsiders although few campus students may assisted in the incident.
Saddam Hossain, assistant general secretary of Chhatra Union, said they informed the police members deployed nearby but they did not pay any heed.
“We held two of the rogues and handed over them to the police. Later, we came to know that the police freed them,” Saddam also said.
When asked about the incident, Dhaka University acting proctor Amzad Ali said he requested the police to close the Shuhrawardy Udyan gate right after he came to know it and urged the police members to take necessary steps.
He said he also urged the police to identify the miscreants from CCTV camera footage.
Jahangir Alam Sarker, assistant deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan police, said they will take necessary steps after checking the camera footage.
Witnessed said such incidents are very common on the Dhaka University campus, especially in Shuhrawardy Udyan area, during any public gatherings.
Few citizen`s rights groups and leftist political parties have condemned the incident.
On February, blogger and writer Avijit was hacked to death in the same area.