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| Friday, 5 March 2004 |
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Over 100 injured in Bangladesh as police and students clash over stabbed writer DHAKA, Thursday (AFP) Over 100 people were hurt when police used batons and tear gas to break up a protest by students against last week's stabbing of a leading Bangladeshi writer. The violence erupted when some 800 Dhaka University students tried to break through a barbed wire police fence to reach a compound housing government departments and pelted officers with stones. They were protesting after well-known author and academic Humayun Azad, 56, suffered serious injuries last Friday when he was stabbed at a book fair on the university campus. Other students were injured when police stormed a university building and entered two student dormitories. "Many of students were bleeding from the head and were taken to hospital for treatment," an AFP photographer said. A hospital official said around 25 people were treated, some of whom had minor cuts and bruises and others who needed stitches to close wounds. Witnesses on campus said about 100 people in total were injured. The injured included three policemen and five journalists working for Dhaka dailies. Doctors at the military hospital where Azad was being treated said his condition was improving. Azad, who regained consciousness Tuesday, "can sit with assistance. He can recognize people," a medical report said. ATN Bangla television network showed the bandaged writer being visited in hospital by Bangladesh's Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack but the writer's family and other authors have blamed hardline Islamists, saying it was linked to his new novel about Bangladesh's 1971 independence war with Pakistan. |
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