“We have been told that Rajendra Dhungana, Ratna Shahi and Shambhu Sen Tumbafo have been arrested but we don´t know where they are kept,” said Pushpa Bhusal, who has 14 stitches on the back of his head after the attack. [break]
Military Attache at the Nepali Embassy in Bangladesh Colonel Prabhu Ram Sharma, who was sent to Chittagong by the embassy for field investigation, also confirmed the arrest of three students but could only identify Dhungana.
Fifteen students staying at the USTC hostel were injured -- three of them critically -- after Dhungana, Tumbafo, Shahi, Dinesh Raj Dahit, Raju Sherchan, Susabin Rai, Durga Gurung and Ghanashyam Rai, who stay outside, suddenly attacked the hostel Friday night.
“We found negligence of the college administration in the whole affair. The students are scared and fear another attack,” Colonel Sharma said. “The administration says they call police at regular intervals and also have tightened the security at the university. But it doesn´t look enough. There are just civil security guards and they don´t look vigilant and competent enough to ward off another attack,” he added.
Victim Bhusal said all the Nepali students at the USTC-- there are around 300 of them --are living in terror and none have attended the classes since the attack. “They say three of the assailants have been arrested but others are still free. The college says police have been searching for them but a few of them have been seen roaming in the vicinity of the university,” Bhusal claimed.
Sharma was also damning in his assessment of the college administration. “The administration doesn´t want the matter to come out in public to save its reputation,” Bhusal concurred.
The guardians of injured students and others studying at the USTC had met Foreign Secretary Madan Bhattarai on Monday and asked the foreign ministry to recall the guilty students saying their children would not be safe as long as the assailants were in Bangladesh even if the college were to rusticate them.
Secretary Bhattarai, who had promised to act according to the embassy report, has meanwhile sent Joint Secretary Hari Kumar Shrestha, who heads the SAARC Division at the foreign ministry, to Bangladesh to handle the matter. “Considering the gravity of the case, we have sent Shrestha to Bangladesh today (Wednesday). He will reach Chittagong Thursday,” secretary Bhattarai said.
Incident started over seeing a slide under microscope
Colonel Sharma said, and Bhusal confirmed, that the gory incident had its genesis in a dispute over seeing a slide under microscope in the laboratory. “Raju Sherchan had jumped line to see the slide and had altercation with Om Prakash Pandit during the practical of the fourth year on June 8,” Bhusal said adding Sherchan also had altercation with a Bangla lab boy at the lab a few days ago.
Sherchan then came to the hostel and thrashed Pandit that day. Bhusal said around 60 Nepali students of the fourth year then tried to broker peace between the duo but Sherchan turned up with junior Nepali students, armed with rods and knives and misbehaved with the batch mates.
“We then called Nepali Students´ Association President Kamal Adhikari and other senior students to mediate the talks on June 9 but Sherchan then came with seniors like Dhungana and Tumbafo and juniors like Susabin Rai and again misbehaved. They also had Adhikari thrown out of the meeting,” Bhusal added.
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