C T Online Desk: Fresh clashes have broken out between New Market store workers and Dhaka College students on Tuesday morning after the two sides were involved in a violent confrontation in the early hours of the day.
Around 10:30 am, Dhaka College students carrying staffs and rods took to the streets and began throwing brickbats. The store workers then came out in response.
Thousands of workers gathered on the road with sticks and brickbats. Dhaka College students took up positions in front of the college gate and on the roofs of their residential halls.
The two sides then confronted each other, with groups chasing each other and throwing brickbats. There have, however, been no head-on clashes.
Explosions could be heard in the area from time to time.
The shopkeepers are largely gathered around the New Market overbridge, while the students are near the college gates.
WHAT STARTED THE VIOLENCE?
Asked how the clashes began, a shop worker named Bablu said that there had been an argument over a bill at a fast-food store near New Market’s Gate-4.
The students came and vandalised the stores in the area, he said, and the clash began when store owners tried to put a stop to it.
Students, meanwhile, claimed that three of them went shopping at the market when they got into an altercation with the shopkeepers and were assaulted.
Store owners say at least 75 shops in the area are closed due to the violence.
Traffic is also at a halt in New Market and its surrounding areas because of the clashes.
Dhaka College has suspended classes and examinations.
Several people, including law enforcers, were injured in the initial clash. Police fired tear gas shells to quell the violence but they could not say what had sparked the skirmish.
