Bangladesh police have detained at least 300 people in a countrywide crackdown on militants and activists for alleged involvement in recent campus violence that killed several students and injured dozens. The detentions sparked violent protests by militants in the capital Dhaka and several other towns Friday, in which around 50 people, mostly policemen, were hurt, witnesses and reporters said. They said the protesters used sticks and stones in sporadic clashes with police, who fired teargas to disperse the fighters. Police said Friday that they held around 200 suspects after a swoop on Rajshahi University in the country's north, where a student was killed on Monday. The victim was shot and stabbed fatally by members of Islami Chhatra Shibir, student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami party, police said. Clashes triggered by the killing led to a rampage in university dormitories and administrative offices which left dozens of students injured and forced authorities to suspend classes and examinations. A few days earlier a student was killed at Dhaka University during an overnight clash between rival factions of a pro-government student group. Another student was shot dead at Chittagong University Thursday. Police said they detained over 100 Shibir members at Dhaka and Chittagong for suspected involvement in the violence. Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student unit of the ruling Awami League, and the Shibir both claimed the Chittagong victim was their supporter. The police crackdown began this week after Shamsul Haque Tuku, state minister of home affairs, ordered a “combing operation.”
