18 constables armed, one head constable and 4 constables with lathis and one head constable and 6 constables of the gas squad.
22. After the arrest of the 91 offenders who violated section 144 of the Code there was a general rush from the University compound. The mob began to run in the direction of the Assembly buildings shouting slogans such as, “Rastra Bhasa Bangala Chai", “Police Zulum Chalbe Na". Its members were informed by the S. P. and the District Magistrate that they constituted an unlawful assembly and unless they dispersed force would be used to disperse them. They did not disperse and so the police fired gas shells and threw gas grenades in order to disperse them. The result of the gas attack was that the students scattered only to reassemble in the Medical College area and on the other side of the Secretariat Road in the University playground. The students could pass from the University compound area into the Medical College compound area because the wall which separates the two at that time was breached and it was physically possible to pass from one compound to the other within the University area without coming out on to the Secretariat Road. The gas attack temporarily dispersed the crowd but by that time the Additional S. P., City, Mr. Masood Mahmood had already been injured, a jeep had been smashed and there was intermittent brickbatting on the police force from the University premises and from the Medical College area. The situation was regarded as serious enough to call for the presence of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Dacca Range, Mr. A. Z. Obidullah. He arrived on the spot at about I p.m. There he met the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police and found that a crowd was collected on the road in front of the University and the Medical College extending almost up to the Assembly House. Warnings by the District Magistrate, the Deputy Inspector-General of Police and the Superintendent of Police went unheeded and the crowd intensified its attack on the police and showers of brickbats were hurled at them. When dispersed by gas attacks, they merely retreated temporarily into the University area-their “sanctuary" and gathered for a fresh attack. It appeared that the focus of the trouble was at the gate of the Medical College and accordingly it was decided to concentrate the police force at the Medical College gate, where it appeared, to be more urgently needed. Between 2 and 2- 30 p.m. the situation developed more serious and the police were forced to take shelter behind the shops on the western side of the Secretariat Road. A member of the Legislative Assembly Maulvi Aulad Hossain, was actually intercepted on his way to the Assembly and was forced to drive into the Medical College Hostel compound. He was compelled to sign a paper that Bengali should be one of the State languages-and, under threats, that he had witnessed lathi charges were being made and had seen the injuries on some boys though as a matter of fact he had not done so. He was unable to come out until 9 p.m. At about this time also the D.S.P., City, Mr. Md. Siddique Dewan, was manhandled and one of the two determined lathi charges which took place on the afternoon of the 21st February was made to effect his rescue from the hands of the crowd. The Police made repeated use of tear gas grenades and shells but the effect produced was not lasting and the mob quickly recovered the initiative. They played what one witness has described as a “cat and mouse" game with the Police, put the grenades and shells out of action by pouring water upon them and' then continued their attacks on the Police and passers-by with showers of brickbats.
