City Corporation Girls’ High School in Chittagong:Is it my fault coaching class during hartal hours

It was a hartal day, not a holiday. So she woke up, got dressed and stepped out on the road to attend a coaching class she had on schedule yesterday.
Fourteen -year-old Antu Barua at that time had no idea of the price she would have to pay for her “mistake”. Yes, to those who took the onus on themselves to enforce the hartal at any cost, she made a mistake.
So, it was her fault that she received injuries from cocktail explosions carried out by hartal supporters — because she was out and found herself before a pro-hartal procession.
Lying on a hospital bed with a bandage on her right eye, Antu, a student of class nine of Aparnacharan City Corporation Girls’ High School in Chittagong, said, “Is it my fault that I went to attend my coaching class during hartal hours?”
Accompanied by her mother, Antu left her residence in the city’s Hemsen Lane area around 7:00am yesterday, the second day of the 36-hour countrywide shutdown called by the BNP-led 18-party alliance.
“As soon as we both got on the main road from our alley, I saw a procession marching from Bouddha Mandir intersection, chanting pro-hartal slogans,” Antu’s mother Shilpi Rani Barua said.
They saw some torched tyres on Momin Road at the time, said Shilpi, a health officer of Raozan upazila in Chittagong.
In a state of panic, they rushed towards their destination but then heard two loud bangs.
“Immediately I found that my daughter was on the ground, holding her right eye,” said Shilpy while trying to hold back tears.
Antu was rushed to Chittagong Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) and admitted to its eye care ward, Nayek Abul Bashar of CMCH Police Camp said.
Subrata Das, a doctor at the eye care ward of CMCH, said, “Luckily, the splinters missed the cornea as they hit somewhere between the cornea and the eyebrow of her [Antu's] right eye.”
The eye was out of danger and Antu would be able to see as normally as she did before, he added.
“Now she is suffering more from shock than from physical injuries,” he noted.
The victim’s father Anjan Barua was seen sitting beside his daughter on the hospital bed.
The parents said they expected that no such incident would happen to anyone’s children in future.
Mirza Saiem Mahmud, assistant commissioner of Kotwali zone of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said police were conducting drives to nab the culprits involved in the incident.

Injured students Khuniyagachh Govt Primary School in Lalmonirhat Attacked by Hartal Supporters

When eight to 10 men were beating up the headmaster, Jahanara Akhter of class-II and her classmates scattered in panic. But, a man with a cricket bat appeared out of nowhere and bashed her with it.
Screams and cries of children echoed from the walls of Khuniyagachh Government Primary School in Lalmonirhat yesterday morning when BNP men in procession stormed the school to enforce the 18-party opposition alliance hartal.
The rampaging hartal supporters vandalised the school and beat up at least 60 little children of class-II and class-III and three teachers.
Their “crime”: they went to school on a hartal day.
It was around 10:45am when about 35 hartal supporters, led by Khuniyagachh union BNP unit President Aminul Islam, stormed the school breaking through the main gate.
They had brought out a procession, which was passing the school.
Headmaster Abdul Hai of the school said, “After vandalising the main gate, they began screaming at me for keeping the school open defying the hartal.”
About 10 of the intruders pinned him down and beat him up in front of other teachers and students. They also beat up two female assistant teachers, Sabina Yasmin Kakuli and Taznin Akhter.
“We pleaded not to attack the kids but they did not listen,” said injured Kakuli, adding that the intruders were carrying sticks, iron rods, sharp weapons and cricket bats.
Storming the teachers’ lounge, some pro-hartal men vandalised furniture and tore up books, said teachers of the school.
The students of class-II and class-II came under attack when they were trying to flee the horror.
The headmaster said apart from slapping and jabbing the children, the hartal supporters beat them up with canes they found in the teachers’ lounge, and with three to four cricket bats they were carrying.
Jamir Uddin, officer-in-charge of Lalmonirhat Sadar Police Station, said locals rushed to school in their hundreds hearing the news and the BNP men were forced to retreat.
The injured teachers and 20 students of class-II and class-II were treated at Khuniyagachh Union Health Complex.
President of the school managing committee, Mozammel Haq Sarker, filed a case against 65 people, mentioning names of 44, with the local police station. BNP unit President Aminul Islam was number one in the list of accused.
Officer-in-Charge Jamir Uddin said they had already started conducting raids to arrest the “BNP men responsible for the attack”.
However, contacted Aminul and he denied having anything to do with the attack.
“It is true that we brought out a procession in support of the hartal and passed by the school,” he said, claiming ignorance of the attack.
Solaiman Ali, father of injured Ankhi Moni, a class-II student, said: “It was beyond our wildest imagination that such little kids will come under attack inside a school.”
Primary and Mass Education Minister Afsarul Ameen yesterday termed the attack on the school, its teachers and students heinous and barbaric.
“We saw many agitations in the past but we never saw such an attack on any primary schoolteachers and kids. These kids are between five to 10 years old. They are just kids … they don’t understand politics,” he told over the phone yesterday evening.
Mentioning that the state minister of his ministry was already in Lalmonirhat, he said, “We’ll definitely do whatever necessary for the injured teachers and students and repair the school.”
contacted BNP Joint Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed for the party’s reaction to the incident. Salahuddin, at around 7:00pm yesterday, said they were unaware of the incident.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asks armed forces to resist any move against democracy, alerts them about conspiracies, pledges not to use the forces for party interest

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked the armed forces to employ all their strength to resist any move against the country’s constitution and democracy.
Reminding the forces of previous moves by vested quarters to jeopardise democracy, she asked them to remain fully loyal to the country’s charter and the democratically elected government.
“You have to ensure that no undemocratic force can capture state power using the armed forces ever again,” Hasina said, addressing the armed forces officers at Senakunja in Dhaka Cantonment.
Her call came hot on the heels of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s March 24 speech in Bogra where she said the army would not play the role of “a silent spectator as people get killed” and that it would “play its role in due time”.
Criticism of Khaleda’s remarks has been mounting, with many describing it as a provocation.
Hasina reminded the armed forces of the struggle and sacrifices the nation had to make to establish democracy, and said: “Members of the armed forces will have to be built up in the light of democratic norms so that they become respectful to democracy and fully loyal and respectful to the country’s constitution and democratic government.”
In this context, she directed the forces to prepare themselves to face any threat to protect the constitution and maintain continuation of democracy as in other independent countries.
The prime minister said the forces would be kept out of any untoward interference and that her government in no circumstances would allow them to be used for partisan interests.
“I firmly believe that it is absolutely crucial to keep the armed forces above political influence in order for them to give all their activities and management an institutional shape,” she said.
The premier also directed armed forces officers to remain vigilant against conspiracies and propaganda, saying a vested quarter was running various campaigns with an ill motive to create a chasm between the armed forces and the Awami League.
Journalists were not allowed to cover the programme, which was originally scheduled for March 21. Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) later distributed copies of the prime minister’s written speech among the newsmen.
Highly praising the armed forces for earning a good reputation at home and abroad through their activities, Hasina said all members of the armed forces would have to mould themselves with the spirit of the Liberation War and the chain of command at all levels would have to be maintained without any hesitation.
She said her government would consider with the highest priority any proposal to tighten the chain of command and improve the professional and ethical standards of the forces.
Hasina also said any gap between seniors and their subordinates was not expected. “You [seniors] will have to watch out for the activities, movements and thoughts of the subordinates and also ensure that they [juniors] do not engage in anti-disciplinary activities.”
VIOLENCE, WAR  CRIMES TRIAL
The prime minister said a radical, fanatic quarter had been running various forms of ill-motivated publicity and hatching conspiracies and describing the pro-liberation forces, including the Awami League, as anti-Islam.
Cashing in on religion, the quarter has become active to hinder the war crimes trial, push the country towards division and spoil the spirit of the Liberation War, she added.
“Over the past few weeks, you [officers] have noticed that some political parties have resorted to killing, vandalism, arson and attacks on police and religious minorities across the country. They have become desperate to turn Bangladesh into a militant state.
“At this critical juncture in the life of the nation, we will have to decide if we want a militant state or a democratic and progressive country.”
PILKHANA MUTINY
The PM said some misguided soldiers of the then BDR (now BGB) revolted on December 1 and 3 in 1991 at Naogaon battalion and Pilkhana respectively and attacked different establishments, offices and houses.
But the then BNP government did not take any action against the mutineers and even did not change the law for punishing the rebels, she said.
And although 25 army officers were killed in the name of the so-called sepoy-janata revolution on November 7, 1975, no investigation or justice had been done. Rather the families of those officers had been evicted from their cantonment residences, she added.
Hasina said many of the BDR soldiers who took part in the 1991 mutiny led the February 25-26 mutiny in 2009. “I think the gruesome mutiny in 2009 could have been avoided had proper action been taken against the mutineers of 1991.”
Many people are now making various comments about the mutiny but nobody stood by the government during the crisis, she said.
The premier went on to say that her government had taken tough action against the mutineers and that 18,520 mutineers had already been tried. Of them, 5,926 have been sentenced to different terms in prison ranging from four months to seven years.
The trial of 850 people on charges of murder and other criminal offences were underway and would be completed soon, she said.
She said the government had taken all possible measurers so that no such tragic mutiny occurred in the border force again.
Chief of Army Staff General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan, Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral M Farid Habib, acting chief of Air Force Air Vice Marshal Abu Esrar and Principal Staff Officer Lt Gen Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq welcomed the prime minister at the programme