Body to probe KU incident

7 April 2010, 18:00 PM

Our Correspondent, Khulna

Khulna University (KU) authorities have formed a seven-member committee to investigate Tuesday's incident involving a photojournalist that led to closure of the university for an identified period. The committed has been formed at an emergency syndicate meeting that began at about 3:00pm on Tuesday and continued for about 10 hours. The committee, formed with syndicate member Prof Dr Mohammad Golam Mortaza as its head and Aparajita Hall Provost Prof Dr Sardar Shafiqul Islam as member secretary, has been asked to submit report within next 15 working days. The authorities also decided to suspend Md Mosharraf Hossain, a caretaker of Khan Zahan Ali Hall, for his alleged involvement in the incident. The university was closed for an indefinite period on Tuesday, as a group of students confined a photojournalist to a room, which led to clashes between the police and students. Some 20 or 25 students of architecture department -- most of them are loyal to Islami Chhatra Shibir and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal -- picked up Shahnewaz, a staff photographer of the Prothom Alo, and confined him to a room in the university's second academic building for about three hours on Monday night. He was also beaten up. On receiving information, the vice-chancellor and other teachers went to the spot and tried to rescue him. Failing to do so in the face of resistance, they called in law enforcers. Two platoons of riot police around midnight went to the campus and tried to rescue Shahnewaz, triggering the clash with stidents. The police, however, managed to rescue the photojournalist.