Ex-BCL Leader Killed In Mob Beating In Rajshahi

A former leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League Rajshahi University unit was brutally lynched in Rajshahi city on Saturday night on charge of attacking protesters on 5 August during the mass upsurge.

Deceased Abdullah Al Masud was the former assistant secretary and member of the RU and Central committees respectively. He was a resident of Budhpara area of the city, said police.

Masud was attacked in Binodpur Bazar near the university on Saturday night by a group of people. They beat up him mercilessly. Later, he was sent to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) with the help of army members. He succumbed to his injuries around 12:30AM on Saturday there.

Masud, who had a physical disability caused by violence in 2014, was attacked in connection with allegations of attacking the protesting students on August 5, said Boalia Model Police Station OC SM Masud Parvez.

He was initially taken to Matihar Police Station by a group of students. However, as there was no case registered at Matihar Police Station related to the August 5 incident, Masud was subsequently arrested under a violence case at Boalia Police Station.

When Masud was in custody at Boalia Police Station, he claimed, "I had come to Binodpur to buy medicine. I was targeted because I used to be in the Chhatra League."

It was learned that after being unemployed for a long period, Masud wrote a letter seeking employment to then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the end of 2022.

Following this, on December 6, 2022, Director-7 Mir Taufey Siddika of the Prime Minister's Office requested the then vice-chancellor of Rajshahi University to appoint Masud to the position of section officer.

Following this, Masud was appointed as a store officer at the university's medical centre on December 20, 2022. He joined the position on December 22.