Five students held

Five students of Premier University, Chittagong were arrested yesterday in connection with the murder of Nasim Ahmed Sohel in Tuesday's attack by his rival faction of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists over a farewell and fresher's reception ceremony scheduled to be held today.

A Chittagong court sent the five arrestees on a three-day remand. The arrestees -- Ashraful Islam, Wahidduzzaman Nishan, Ziaul Haider Chowdhury, SM Golam Mostafa, and Tamim-ul-Alam -- were identified in the CCTV footage collected from the university, said Mohammad Mainuddin, assistant commissioner (Kotwali) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP).

Aziz Ahmed, officer-in-charge of Chawkbazar Police Station, said they identified seven other attackers from the CCTV footage.

Emran Ahmed Imu, president of city unit BCL, claimed to The Daily Star that he watched the CCTV footage but found "no BCL men" among the attackers.

Sohel's father filed a case with the police on Tuesday night accusing 13 named persons and some 20 to 25 unidentified others. 

However, leaders of a faction of Chittagong city unit BCL in a press conference at Chittagong Press Club gave a three-day ultimatum to arrest the murderers of Sohel, an MBA student of the university and demanded resignation of its Vice-Chancellor Dr Anupam Sen for his "failure" to protect Sohel.

The BCL leaders also threatened to hold rallies and observe strike in educational institutions in the city on April 3 and 5 respectively, organise a sit-in programme before the CMP office on April 6 and besiege the VC's office on April 7.

About the demand of his resignation, Dr Anupam said, "I think a quarter is trying to paint the matter with political colour for political motivation."

The faction of city unit BCL, loyal to ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, yesterday brought out a protest procession demanding punishment for the killers.